


Zedler, M.D.

by baileyxann



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-04 07:19:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5325410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baileyxann/pseuds/baileyxann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beatrix was a trauma surgeon, and Daryl was nobody. Lucky for them, the impending apocalypse brought them together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One: Rick Grimes

Beatrix

I take my time walking across the parking lot, being careful not to step on any of the body parts scattered around the hospital. My knife is clutched in my left hand, ready for use, though I hope I won't need it. I've only encountered three walkers that I've had to kill so far on my little trips here and back, and neither of those three times went over too well. I haven't been bitten, but they were all pretty close calls.

The door creeks as I push it open just enough to squeeze my body and my duffel bag through. I've been bringing supplies back to my apartment from the hospital each time I've been here to check up on him, so I've acquired a lot of medical supplies in case I need to use it. I quietly make my way down the hallway and stop at the room he's been in for the past three months. I sit on the bed outside of his room that blocks the entrance and crack the door open, briefly peeking in just to make sure he's still there. He is, so I continue on down to the pharmacy after slipping my knife back into its holder safely on my hip. My goal today is to stock up on antibiotics and painkillers, so that's what I do.

I quietly fill my black duffle up with as many pill bottles, syrenges, needles, and IV bags as I can fit inside. Then, I start making my way back towards his room. I thought I faintly heard someone calling for a nurse, but I brush it off as nothing and assume it's just my brain faintly recalling a memory from before the turn. I stop by the nurse's station to sit my bag down, get out the IV bag he needs, and pick up his file and a pen. I've been taking notes on his case and hopefully he'll be waking up from his mini-coma soon.

As I make my way back from the nurse's station, I immediately notice that the bed is pushed away from the doorway to his room. I quickly tuck the file and IV bag under my arm and run into the room. He's missing from his bed and his IV tubing is laying all over the floor. He must have woken up and wondered off. I need to find him and explain everything to him before he finds out for himself.

Leaving the IV bag and patient file on the table, I quietly jog down the hallways looking for him. After a few minutes, I find him standing in front of the double doors looking at the walker hands desperately grasping at him through the cracks.

"Don't dead, open inside," I say from right behind him. He jumps, obviously startled from my voice.

"What does that mean?" He questions, taking a couple of steps back from me.

"It's supposed to say 'don't open, dead inside', but the idiots made it look like 'don't dead, open inside'," I try to joke with him.

"Who are you?" He reties his hospital gown and gives me a skeptical look. I can tell he's very confused as to what's going on, just like I predicted.

"I'm Doctor Zedler, but you can call me Beatrix. I was the trauma suergon who saved your life from your gunshot wound," I take a step closer to him, and he backs away. "It's okay; I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure everything is fine with you. Can we go back to your room?"

"Yeah," he mutters and let's me take his arm so I can help him walk. "Why are there dead people in the hallways? Why are you the only person here?"

"Calm down, Mr. Grimes, you're going to get your blood pressure up. I'll explain everything once I make sure you're okay," he nods his head and I help him into the chair beside his bed.

"Can I ask questions while you're working? Or would that interfere with anything?" He asks while I gather my supplies. I had to get another IV needle, seeing as he ripped his out. I sit on the stool in front of him, pulling the vital's cart along with me.

"Of course, but you're probably going to think I'm insane. You must believe that this is real, because it is," I strap the blood pressure cuff on him and start to take his pulse.

"What were the things behind the doors? Those weren't people."

"Mr. Grimes, those are walkers," I start, but he cuts me off.

"Call me Rick please."

"Of course," I smile and remove the cuff from his arm, writing everything down in his chart. "They're walkers, or at least that's what I like to call them. They were once people, but they died and resurrected as these things."

"If they're dead, how can they come back? And where is everybody else?" He wince as I insert his IV line back into his arm.

"I have no idea what the virus is, but I do know that whatever is is, it restarts the motor part of the brain that lets them move. The person they were before is gone," I frown as I bring the IV pole over and hook all of his bags up. "As for everybody else, they evacuated the town about two months ago. Almost everybody in town headed for Atlanta where the government was supposed to have had protection camps set up."

"Why did you stay here?"

"I wanted to help you. Plus, I don't really have family anyway, so I don't have much to lose." I smile and retrieve a bottle of water from one of the bedside cabinets, handing it to Rick. "When the hospital was being evacuated, they came in and shot up everyone. Living people running in the halls, they were all getting shot, so I hid out in here with you. I sat beside of your bed until I heard everything settle down. They probably just assumed that you were already dead and let you be, but I knew you weren't. I was hopeful that you would soon wake up, so I stayed and continued to care for you after everybody else left."

"That's admirable, Beatrix. Not many people would do that for a random stranger," Rick gives me a slight smile.

"You weren't a random stranger. You were my patient and I needed to make sure I saved you," I return his smile and go to retrieve some gauze and antiseptic from the supply cabinet in the corner of the room. "Can you stand up for me? I need to redress your wound."

"Sure," he does as I asked. "So you said that everybody left for Atlanta?" I nod my head and I can tell that he's starting to panic. "I need to find my wife and son. Do you know if they're here?"

"I'm sorry, I don't. You're the only living person I've seen in a couple of months, but we can look for them. Where's your house? If it's close to here we can walk." I finish wrapping his abdomen and tape it off.

"About a mile from here, it's not too far," Rick says while tying his robe again. "How long have I been out?"

"A little over three months," I say while I write down more in his file. "The bullet nicked your kidney and you almost lost it. I put you in a medically induced coma, which, combined with the near kidney failure and shock, sent you into an actual coma. I'm sorry for that, I feel terrible. I was just doing what I thought would keep you alive."

"You saved my life, that's enough for me." Rick smiles and places a hand on my shoulder. "So have you killed any of the- what did you call them? Walkers?- yet?"

"Unfortunately yes, but only three," I sigh, grab the file, and walk out the door. "Come with me and bring your IV pole. I need to go to my apartment first."

"How far away is that?" Rick asks as he stumbles behind me towards the nurse's station.

"Not too far, just about a block or so. Since I work here, it's convenient for me to live close," I smile and slip the pen into the pocket of my lab coat. I like wearing it over my scrubs to the hospital to make myself feel at least a little bit normal.

"Alright," he agrees and waits for me to gather my things from the nurse's station. "Can I help you carry anything?"

"No, no. You need to worry about your IV pole and focus on not falling," I grab my duffle and do a quick sweep to make sure there isn't anything else I can carry out with me now. "We'll have to come back later to get more supplies. Not trying to be mean, but what are you going to do if your wife and son aren't here?"

"I'm going to Atlanta to find them," he gives me a look that says 'is that even a question?' "You can come with me if you'd like."

"That would be nice," I smile at him again. "I need somebody to keep me company until this whole thing gets sorted out."

"I'm still having trouble believing that this is all real," he quietly says as we walk out of the building. As soon as he sees the rows of bodies, I can see the look of horror spread across his face. "It's real, isn't it?"

"Sadly," I mutter. "It's this way, come on."

He pulls his IV pole behind him as I lead the way to my apartment building. It was about a five minute walk and then another five to get Rick and his pole up the stairs to my floor. I unlock my door and gently sit the duffle down on the couch.

"Here," I pick out the biggest pair of shoes in my closet and hand them to him. "I know they're kind of girly, but they'll do until you get to your house. If your wife and son aren't here then we'll need to come back here too and get all of the medical supplies I've taken from the hospital in case we need it."

"Thank you," Rick says as he slips the shoes on. "Do I need to keep this in my arm or can I take it out? It's difficult to deal with."

"Um, I'm not sure. Sit on the bar stool and undo your robe for me," I stand in front of the stool, so his abdomen was almost level with my eyes. I remove the gauze from the bullett hole and press my fingers lightly on the skin around it. "Does that hurt?"

"Not really," Rick replies as I apply more pressure. I give him a questioning look and he just shakes his head. I stick my stethescope in my ears and place the end on his chest.

"Your heartbeat is normal," I mutter before slipping my arm around and holding the stethescope to his back, listening to the valves of his lungs. "Deep breath."

"So am I good?" He asks after I remove the stethescope from his back. I take my mini flashlight from my front pocket and shine it in his eyes.

"Pupils dialate fine," I ignore his question for the time being and glance at his IV bag. "I can take it out now if you want, but it would be better if you let the rest of the fluids get into your system. They're almost gone anyway, and it would only take half an hour."

"I want it out now. I need to go see if my family is here," I can tell he's trying to be polite, but he wants out of my house right now. So I comply to his wishes and remove the IV from his arm and tape a peice of gauze over it to prevent bleeding.

"Let's go," I say after taking off my lab coat and double checking to make sure my knife is still hung on my hip.

We spend the short twenty minute walk to Rick's house in silence. When it gets within seeing range, Rick takes off in a run towards the house, and I jog right behind him. Once he gets through the door, he starts screaming for his wife and son, who I had met previously when they came to visit Rick in the hospital.

"Rick, you need to be quiet. Sound attracts them," I whisper-yell at him before he finally stops his screaming.

"Carl no no no," Rick mutters before dropping to the floor and sobbing. Before I even have time to react, he's up and out on the lawn screaming agin. If he doesn't shut up, he's going to get us killed. I shake my head and look down before deciding that I should probably go and bring him inside so we can figure out a plan.

"Dad! Dad, I got one!" I hear a young boy scream from outside. I see an older black man running towards him at the same time I was, seeing Rick collapsed on the grass with the small, black child standing beside of him holding a baseball bat and smiling.

"You idiot!" I yell, gesturing to Rick, "This man is my friend! He just woke up from a coma and you could have very well given him a concussion."

"I apologize, Miss. Duane here just thought he was one of them," the older black man says. I assume he's Duane's dad.

"Well we need to get him inside somewhere," I argue, seeing that we've attracted the attention of a few walkers.

"Let's take him to my house. It's safe," the man says as he picks Rick up and startes to run. I follow right behind him, not wanting to have to kill anymore of the walkers.

Once we arrive at the house, the man takes Rick into one of the back rooms while I take it upon myself to lock the door and prevent anything from getting in. I wander back to the room to find the man tying Rick to the bed.

"Stop it, why are you tying him up?" I hold my hands up, but the man holds a knife up, warning me to back off.

"Need to make sure he's safe," the man replies before forcing me to sit down in a chair across of fom the bed. "My name is Morgan."

"Beatrix," I smile, but the look he gave me makes me drop it very quickly. "That's Rick."

We sit in silence for about half an hour until Rick starts to stir. By now, it's getting close to dark, so Duane turns on an oil lamp. Morgan begins splashing Rick's face with water until his eyes finally open.

"Were you bit?" Morgan violently asks Rick, not giving him any time to fully wake up.

"What?" Rick asks, still confused from his half-unconscious state.

"Were you bit or scratched?" Morgan asks again, getting closer to his face.

"As far as I know, no," Rick replies and looks to me. "Why would I have been bit?"

"What's your wound from?" Morgan asks him, ignoring his question.

"Gunshot," I say. "Three months ago, before the turn. I'm the one that operated on him. He's clean of all bites and scratches. He just woke up earlier today and I've been with him ever since."

"Why would I have been bit?" Rick repeate his question, now fully awake and thoroughly confused.

"She didn't tell you?" Morgan asks and Rick shakes his head no, "If you get bit or scratched by a walker, you turn into one."

"Well, I'm clean. I haven't even fully seen a walker yet," Rick tells Morgan as he cut the ties from his wrists.

"Now's as good a time as any to see one then," Morgan stands up and leaves the room. Rick and I follow right after, to see him pointing out the blinds in the living room. "Right there, they'll try they best to eat you. You two can stay here tonight if you need to, it's too dangerous to go outside now."

"We will, thank you," Rick nods his head.

Morgan makes us dinner, which was just warmed up soup beans from a can, but it's still nice. Nice to be able to eat with actual people again. It's mostly silent, aside from Morgan talking about how his wife died.

The men all go to sleep in the living room, leaving me with the room that Morgan had Rick in. I lock the door and place my knife on the bedside table before drifting off to sleep.

The next morning, Rick offers to take the four of us to the Sheriff's station to get guns and amno, but only if we go back to his house first. Of course, we all go and let Rick get a change of clothes to bring along with us.

"The photo albums are all gone," Rick smiles, clearly happy. "If you were to rob a house right now to get stuff that you would need, why would you take photo albums?"

"I wouldn't," I say, getting the point that he was trying to make.

"That's right! You wouldn't take them unless they were your photo albums," Rick walks to the kitchen and comes back with a set of keys. "Lori and Carl are alive."

None of us argue with him and just let him think what he wants, even though we all know that the chances were that they were dead. Regardless, Rick leads us out to his police car and start our journey to the Sheriff's station. I sit shotgun on the quiet, half-hour drive over there.

Once we're in the building, Rick tells us that the station has back up generators so we can take showers. I am eternally grateful as I go to the girl's locker room and take the first actual shower I've had in nearly two months. I keep my knife close, though I don't need it while I take my shower. I put my scrubs back on and wrap my hair in my towel after I get out and head over to the boy's locker room. They are all fully dressed and ready to go.

Rick takes us to the armory, which appears to be untouched, and starts piling guns into a bag. Once he has most of them in his bag, he hands Morgan a bag as well.

"You take the rest of them, you'll need it," Rick says. He toys with his hat while Morgan collects the guns he wants, leaving nothing behind. "Are you sure you don't want to go to Atlanta with us?"

"Not right now. I'm gonna teach Duane here how to use a gun and then we'll come behind you," Morgan explains as we exit the building.

"If you need to find us, we'll be on channel three," Rick hands Morgan a walkie-talkie. "Turn it on evey morning at dawn and I'll be on the other end. Leave it on for an hour and then turn it back off; you need to conserve the battery."

"Thank you, Rick. For everything," Morgan holds his hand out for Rick to shake, and he takes it. "You too, Beatrix. I hope you guys find your family."

"Thank you," Rick tips his hat and lets Morgan leave in another cop car. "We better get going back to your appartment to get whatever you need."

"Don't you want to bring more clothes with you other than that sheriff's uniform?" I ask, getting in the car and buckling up.

"I won't need them," Rick says and then slightly laughs. "You don't have to buckle up, I won't give you a ticket."

"Sorry, it's just a habit," I look down as he drives back to my place.

"Don't be sorry. Are we stopping at the hospital before or after your apartment?"

"After. We need to get as much medical supplies as we possibly can and I need to get the bags to pack it in. We're going to need it desperately," I say. I try to think of all the scenarios of what we could possibly use medical supplies for and there's just too many. We are definitely going to need a lot, especially if we do end up finding Lori and Carl.

"As long as you can pack it, we can bring it," Rick smiles and continues on down the road.

Once we get to my house, I quickly run up the stairs with Rick not far behind me. We need to get all of this done pretty quick if we want to get to Atlanta before dark.

"How can I help?" Rick asks, just standing in my bedroom, watching me look for things.

"Get in my closet and find the biggest suitcase you can. Pull it down and lay it on the bed," I instruct. I then run back to my kitchen and grab all of the duffle bags I have filled with medical supplies, even though it takes me muliple trips, and lay them out on my bed. "Take everything out of these and stuff it all in the suitcase. It should all fit if you put the gauze in the zipper pockets, IV bags and tubing in the first compartment, and the rest in the bottom. Just be careful not to break anything or poke yourself."

"Got it," Rick says as he begins dumping everything out onto my bed.

I grab the first duffle bag he emptied and begins throwing clothes into it. Not much, just a few tank tops, t-shirts, pants, socks and underwear. I also throw in a few sets of scrubs and my only two lab coats just because I'm too attached to them to leave them. I stuff my cowboy boots inside and put my combat boots on my feet.

"Are you done yet?"I ask Rick after I'm finished packing my things.

"Yeah, it's pretty stuffed, but I got it all inside. Don't you think it's a little much though?"

"You can never have too much medical supplies," I smile at him and grab another suitcase from my closet. "Bring another duffle along too, I'm taking everything I can from the hospital."

"You loved your job, didn't you?" Rick asks as he pulls the suitcase behind him with two more duffle bags in his hands.

"More than anything," I sigh. My job was my life and now it's all gone. I just hope that I can find more people that I can save.

"Do you want to bring the IV pole too?" Rick asks. I know he's joking, but I'm not.

"If it'll fit in your car somehow," I raise my eyebrow, fully expecting him to say no.

"Grab it, we can manage."

I smile and pull the IV pole behind me as we grt back down to Rick's car. He loads all of the suitcases and empty duffle bags into the trunk and somehow manages to stuff the IV pole into the backseat. When we get to the hospital, we each grab two duffle bags and Rick grabs the other suitcase and we quietly make our way back to the nurse's station.

"So where is everything that we'll need at?" Rick asks, not sitting anything down.

"Everything is stored either in the ER or in the first floor storage room," I say, looking around. "And we don't need to split up, so which do you wanna go to first?"

"Wouldn't the best stuff be in the storage room? We should head there first and if we have anymore room, we should head to the ER," Rick says. He makes sense, so I nod my head and lead him to the storage room.

"We need to get everything needed for surgery, just in case, and fit it into the suitcase. Then stitch sets and whatever else we find," I say, scanning the shelves.

"I'll get the stitch sets and what not into the duffle bags. You can get the other stuff because I don't know what to get," Rick gets to work on dumping rolls of gauze, tape, and whatever else he could find into the duffle bags as I find the surgery essientals. After a while, we basically have the whole place cleared out and still one duffle bag left over. "We should head to the pharmacy to get more drugs."

"Beatrix, are you sure we need all of this?" Rick asks again, which makes me snap.

"Of course we need it, Rick. All of this, what I guess you think is useless shit, could very well save your life one day, so I wouldn't doubt it too much," I half yell in the middle of the hallway before realizing what I'm doing. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to snap. I just- I'm very passionate about medicine that's all."

"It's alright, I'm sure you're just stressed," he pats my back the best he could while carrying a suitcase and a duffle bag packed full.

"I wish I could bring an MRI with us," I sighed and shook my head as we entered the pharmacy. I told Rick to stuff as many over-the-counter drugs into the bags as he could while I took the empty duffle and went to the back, grabbing everything from high strength aspirins to paralyzing drugs. I was also careful to grab as many needles as I could find so that I could correctly insert them into the blood stream.

"Are we done now?" Rick asked. I could tell he was getting annoyed, which bothered me, so I nodded my head and we dragged everything out of the building and into his car. Then we began our short journey to Atlanta.

Rick attempted to radio anybody that he could through the one in the car, but it didn't work. Nobody answered, but it's not like we expected any less. It was eerily quiet in Atlanta when we arrived, and that bugged me, but I let it go. Rick drove down the street until he decided to make a turn down a street full of walkers.

"Oh shit," Rick muttered as he quickly put the car in reverse and backed up, only to be met by another swarm of walkers attacking us from the back. He threw his hat on the dash and handed me a gun, "stay right beside of me, we'll be okay."

"Don't forget to aim for the brain," I added right before he opened his door and dashed out with me following right behind him. Everywhere we turned there were walkers. I saw a tank not too far from where we were and pointed at it, grabbing Rick's arm,"Over there!"

"Hurry up, Bea," he yelled behind his shoulder before jumping up on the tank and shooting down the walkers that were trying to grab my feet as I pulled myself up. We lowered ourselves down inside of the tank before exchanging a look of panic.

"We're screwed."


	2. Chapter Two: Atlanta Escape

Beatrix

Rick slammed the door to the tank shut and sat down beside of a dead body while I planted my butt firmly in the drivers seat. My body started trembling from fear as I held my face in my hands, trying to pull myself together. I looked up at Rick just in time to see him attempting to get a grenade out of the dead soldier's pocket. The soldier's arms started to move towards Rick and I gasped. Once Rick noticed, he pulled out his gun and aimed it at the walker's head as it attempted to bite into his other arm.

"Rick don't sh-" I tried to warn him, but it was too late. He already fired off the shot and my ears started ringing. The aftermath of the gunshot inside the enclosed tank left the both of us disoriented and trying to regain composure by pushing our hands to our ears, like it would ease off some of the ringing. I managed to slur out, "You aren't supposed to fire guns in enclosed spaces like this. It could have busted either of our ear drums."

"Hello?" We heard another voice and turned to see that it was coming from the radio right beside of me. "Yeah you, the dumbasses in the tank. You wanna make it out of there alive?"

"Who are you?" I said as I grabbed the radio and pulled it to my face. Rick managed to stumble over to the passenger seat and take the radio from me. It's not like I minded, he probably has more experience with this stuff anyway.

"Does it really matter?" The man said back, "I'm offering to save your lives."

"Is there a way to get out of this?" Rick asked, wiping beads of sweat off of his forehead. I nervously bit my nails waiting for the reply.

"There are geeks completely surrounding the tank," the man paused momentarily. "Is there anything in there that you could use to distract them? Anything that makes noise?"

"The grenade you go off the walker," I whispered. "There's two more on that shelf over there."

"We've got a couple of lower grade grenades," Rick said, reaching over and grabbing the other two. "We could probably throw them without causing too much damage to any of the buildings."

"Alright, good. Right now, there are only three of them that have climbed on the actual tank. If you can go up the top, knife those and throw the grenades, you can distract them long enough to make your way to me in the alley," the man instructed.

"Are you serious? We can't go out there right now," I said, taking the radio from Rick.

"Beatrix, it's our best bet," Rick sighed and took the radio back from me. "We'll do it. Which way do we need to run?"

"Straight forward and slightly to the left," the man lightly sighed. "I'll be waiting at the edge, waving my hands so you can see me. Each of you, take a grenade and throw them in opposite directions so they'll seperate and you can get through."

"Thank you," Rick said and sat the radio back down in its rightful place. He handed me one of the grenades and I gave him a nervous look. "Keep your finger held down on the leaver. Once you get out, turn to the right. Pull the pin out and throw it as far as you can. Got it?" I nodded my head and he continued, "Since you've got a knife, can you get the ones on top of the tank?"

"Um I don't know. I'm not very good at killing them and-" I started to stutter and tightly clung the grenade in my left hand, afraid of accidentally setting it off.

"I'll do it, it's okay. Give me the knife," I handed him my knife and he stood up, undoing the latch on the top door.

"You all might wanna hurry up," the man called from the radio. "More and more are gathering around you."

"Come on, Beatrix," Rick said before lifting up the door and jumping out. I scrambled up and pulled myself out of the tank right after he did.

As soon as I was out, I turned to my right and gasped as I looked around me. Easily a hundred or more walkers were making their way to the tank and trying to climb on top of it to get to us. I froze for a few seconds before hearing Rick's grenade go off. I pulled the pin and chucked it as far as I could away from us. It landed quite a bit away, but I still felt the heat on my face as it went off. Turning back to Rick, I felt for my knife and realized that I was unarmed. He grabbed my arm and pulled me through the small parting in the walkers to the alley where an Asian looking man stood. We ran fast, dodging all the walkers that were coming at us, with Rick shooting down any one that got too close.

"Come on, up the ladder," the man yelled as he started climbing. Rick pushed me up ahead of him and I climbed as fast as I could underneath the Asian man. He noticed me looking all the way up, seeing how tall the building we were climbing was. "At least it'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass half full kinda guy."

After a couple of minutes, we finally made it to the top of the building and I collapsed onto the roof top, breathing heavily. That's easily the most of them I've seen at one time, ones that hadn't already been put down at least.

"Are you alright, Bea?" Rick asked, squatting down next to me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I mumbled and sat up. "Just sacred."

"What's your name?" The Asian man asked. I'm pretty sure I know him from somewhere; he just looks so familiar.

"Rick Grimes," Rick held his hand out for the man to shake and he hesitantly took it. "This is Beatrix."

"Glenn Rhee," the man nodded at me as a response to the small wave I gave him when Rick introduced me.

"Why'd you save us?" I asked, standing up and peering over the edge of the building. There were small fires in the streets about a hundred feet away from the tank on either side, with walkers walking around on fire.

"I figured that if I ever got that far up shitcreek myself, Karma would be good to me. I guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than the both of you," he shrugged. "Follow me, I need to take you to the rest of my group."

Rick and I done as Glenn said and followed him across a bridge type thing to another roof and down the flights of stairs to the outside of the building we were on. We quickly dashed across the space between the building we just came from and the one Glenn's group was in. It was an abandoned department store with a few people standing in the corner, and a small horde of walkers beating on the glass doors.

"Who are you people?" A blonde woman said, waking up and pointing a gun in Rick's face. A few seconds after, a black woman grabbed my arm and pulled me back way from the scene, which I was thankful for.

"I'm Rick Grimes and that's Beatrix," he tilted his head toward me and I awkwardly smiled in her direction.

"Were you two the ones that set off the explosives in the streets?" The woman demanded, shoving the gun even closer to Rick's face. "We're all dead because of you two!"

"Andrea, back off!" A Mexican lookin man yelled at her.

"Shut up, Morales!" Andrea, I'm assuming, shouted at him. "Now why would you be so stupid as to let off grenades in the middle o the city?"

"They had to," Glenn butted in. "They were surrounded and I told them to. So just put the gun away, okay?"

"What are you talking about?" Rick asked as the woman put her gun down.

"I'm Andrea," she said before grabbing Rick's arm and pulling him towards the doors with the rest of us following behind. "You know they're attracted to noise right? Every geek from miles around heard you two blowing up everything. You just rang the dinner bell."

"Spleen!" I exclaimed, pointing at Glenn and suddenly remembering where I knew him from. I knew he looked familiar.

"What?" He looked confused, just like everyone else did, at my sudden outburst. I felt my cheeks burn red from embarassment because of it.

"I thought you looked familiar, and i just figured out where I know you from," I smiled as I recalled the memory. "You were in a car accident about seven months before the turn, right? And you had your spleen removed?"

"Yeah," Glenn raised an eyebrow, probably now creeped out because I know that. "How do you know that?"

"Because I was the one that removed it," I shrugged. "It was all ruptured and gross. Pretty cool though."

"How come I never seen you then? I thought my doctor was the one that removed it?"

"No, it was me. I was a trauma suergon and I just happened to be at the hospital when they brought you in, unconscious might I add. I'm always the one that operates, but never gets the credit because people just assume their normal doctor done it," I explained. It's not really fair that I didn't get credit, but I saved their lives and that's all that really matters.

"Oh. Well, thanks I guess," Glenn laughed as we heard three gunshots ring out.

"Is that Dixon?" Andrea yelled and took off toward the roof, all of us following her.

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?" Morales yelled at a man who was standing on the edge of the roof with a sniper.

"You outta be more polite to a man with a gun," the guy, I'm guessing named Dixon laughed, jumping down. "It's only common sense."

"Man you're wastin' bulletts we ain't even got!" The black man, who's name I still don't know, shouted, running towards Dixon. "You're gonna bring even more of 'em down here on us, man, just chill!"

"You think I'm gonna take orders from you," Dixon gave another sarcastic laugh. "I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day."

"Oh that'll be the day? You got something you wanna tell me?"

"T-Dog it's not worth it," Morales said from beside of the black man. "Now, Merle, just relax okay? We've already got enough trouble."

"You wanna know the day?" Merle said, getting up in T-Dog's face. So his first name is Merle and his last name is Dixon, got it.

"Yeah, I do."

"I'll tell you the day, Mr. Yo," Merle pointed his gun. "It's the day I take orders from a nigger."

T-Dog immediately lunges at Merle, punching him in the face. I want to go help, but Glenn shoots Rick and I a look that tells us not to, and then goes to help himself. Rick doesn't listen, but I stay put as Merle continues to hit and kick T-Dog even after he's on the ground. Merle hits Rick in the face, sending him onto the ground as well.

"Get off him, you're gonna kill him!" Andrea screeches, while keeping her distance. Merle pulls out a handgun, seeing as he threw his sniper to the side, and stuck it on T-Dog's mouth. "No, no, no please."

"Yeah," Merle says after he spits on T-Dog. "We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow. Talk about who's in charge. I vote me, anybody else? Democracy time ya'll, all in favor." Everybody, aside from Rick and I raise our hands, "Anybody else?"

"Yeah, me," Rick says as he comes up behind Merle and punches him in the jaw. Merle falls to the ground and Rick handcuffs him to a pole on the roof.

"Who the hell are you, man?" Merle frantically yells.

"Officer Friendly," Rick growls. "Listen, Merle, things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. There aren't any dumb as shit white trash inbreds fools either. Only dark meat and white meat; there's us and the dead. We survive this by puing together, not apart."

"Screw you, man."

"I can see you have a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah, well screw you twice."

"You outta be more polite to a man with a gun," Rick says, pointing his handheld to Merle's temple. "It's only common sense."

"You won't do it, you're a cop."

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and his son," Rick says, tilting his head. I remember his wife and son, Lori and Carl. I ran into them while checking up on Rick's condition post-op before the turn. "Anybody who gets in the way of that is gonna lose."

Rick pats him down before pulling out a half smoked joint from his pocket, flicking his nose and throwing it off the building. Merle started screaming some more, but I just tuned it out.

"Beatrix!" Andrea called from the other side of the room. I looked up to see her waving me over, "Come over here."

"I didn't get to properly introduce myself earlier," the black woman held her hand out to me and I shook it. "I'm Jacqui."

"T-Dog," the black guy said form the ground. He was still lying down and breathing heavily from his fight with Merle. He then grabbed a radio and started changing the frequencies, trying to contact somebody.

"I'm Beatrix," I smiled and pushed a piece of hair behind my ear.

"How's that signal?" Morales asked T-Dog, walking back over to the group with Rick.

"Like Dixon's brain power," T-Dog laughed. "Weak"

"It's not like they can do anything to help us," Andrea scoffed while Merle flipped T-Dog off.

"Got some people outside the city," Morales said to Rick and I. "There's no refugee center."

"We'll just have to find a way out ourselves then," Rick said, glancing down at the walker filled streets.

"Good luck with that. I hear the streets in this part of town ain't safe," Merle butts in, then turns his attention to me. "Ain't that right sugar tits? Say you get me outta these cuffs. We could go out somewhere and bump some uglies. We're gonna die anyway."

"I'd rather," I barely glance his way. I'm appalled at his behavior. Seriously, who says that stuff?

I then sit down next to T-Dog as the rest of the group try to plan our escape. The group heads downstairs to try and find a drainage pipe while I stay on the roof with T-Dog and Merle. It's not that I'd rather be near Merle, I just don't wanna chance going into the store and have the walkers break through the glass.

"Anybody out there?" T-Dog said into the radio, "I wish I could hear somebody else's voice because I'm gettin sick and tired of hearing mine."

"That makes two of us," Merle scoffs. "Why don't you just give up? Ain't nobody gonna answer?"

"Why are you such a jerk?" I looked up at Merle. "You're rude to people when you literally have no reason to."

"Well, sweetheart, I do it because it's fun," Merle smirks and continues to pester T-Dog. "Why are you still sittin up here, talkin into a radio that ain't nobody gonna reply to? You're givin me a headache listenin to you go on."

"If you'd pull your head out of your ass for half a second, maybe your headache would go away," T-Dog retorts and I feel like high-fiving him. That was a good one.

"Why can't you just be positive? Think happy and everything will work out for you," I advise him.

"I tell you what, honey buns. You get me outta these cuffs and I'll be all Sammy Sunshine for you." Merle smirks at me, "Get me that hacksaw from that toolbox over there. I'll make it worth your while."

"Just so you can beat my ass again?" T-Dog scoffed, "Or call me a nigger some more?"

"Oh come on, it ain't nothin personal," Merle tries to reason with him and I just shake my head. "It's just that your kind and my kind ain't supposed to mix. Don't mean we can't work together as long as there's some kind of mutual gain involved. So, how bout that hacksaw?"

"I guess you want me to get that rifle over there too, huh?" T-Dog nods his head towards the gun. "So you can shoot that cop when he comes back up."

Mere just scoffs and it falls silent. Except for the walkers on the streets, of course. The rest of the group comes back up and starts looking over the rooftop with binoculars when an idea pops into my head.

"Wait guys," I jump up and grab a pair of binoculars from Rick and look over the ledge. I see a construction site with delivery trucks parked in it. "Construction sites normally keep a set of keys to their vehicles on site, right? And the walkers, they can tell us by our smell, am I correct?"

"Yeah, what's your point?" Glenn asks.

"What if one or two of us covered ourselves in walker guts. We could easily blend in with them long enough to get to a truck and swing back around to pick everybody up," I smile, proud of my idea.

"That's insane," Rick says, shaking his head. "But it'll work and I'll do it. Glenn will you come with me?"

"I-" Glenn starts, but eventually gives up. "Yeah, I'll go."

"Good, come on," Rick says, taking off down the stairs again. Merle starts his screaming again, but we all ignore him as we follow Rick.

"If bad ideas were an Olympic sport, this would take the gold," Glenn complains as we all grab pairs of gloves and trench coats and put them on. Morales and T-Dog run outside the doors to retrieve a dead walker and they pull him back inside. Rick takes an axe and starts to swing it at the body on the ground, then stops.

"Wayne Dunlap," he says, looking through his wallet. "Georgia license, born nineteen seventy-nine. He had twenty-eight dollars in his pocket when he died, and a picture of a pretty girl. He used to be like us, worrying about bills, or the Super Bowl. If I ever find my family, I'll tell them about Wayne and the sacrifice he made for us."

"One more thing," Glenn speaks up, also looking at Wayne's wallet. "He was an organ donor."

I couldn't help but to chuckle at the irony, which earned me a few disapproving looks from everyone. Rick proceeded to chop up the body anyway, making sure to get blood and guts everywhere. Glenn, Jacqui, and Andrea all puked as Morales continued chopping. It didn't faze me though; this is basically what I saw every day with my job.

"Everybody got gloves?" Rick asked and we all nodded our heads, "Good. Don't get any in your eyes or on your skin."

We all nodded and began picking up the mangled body parts and rubbing them on Rick and Glenn. Andrea picked up the large intestine and hung it around Glenn's nick, while I coped her and hung the small around Rick's neck.

"Oh this is so bad," Glenn shivered, his face turning paler than normal.

"You'll be fine, it's just the human body. You have the same things inside of you," I shrugged he gave me a 'you really are insane' look.

"Think of other things," Rick suggested. "Like puppies or kittens."

"Dead puppies and kittens," T-Dog mumbled.

"That's just evil. What is wrong with you?" Andrea groaned, while still lathering walker guts onto Glenn, who just puked again.

"Next time, let the crack head beat his ass," Jacqui said to Rick.

After a little while, the were completely covered in guts and were armed with an axe and a baseball bat. Rick have T-Dog the key to get Merle off of the roof and we all ran up there to watch them.

"Do you think they'll make it?" Jacqui asked. Not to anybody in particular, just in general.

"If it starts raining they won't," I mumble, looking at the rain clouds overhead.

"You mean that asshole's out on the streets with the handcuff keys?" Merle yelled.

"Nope," T-Dog said, waving the key in front of his face. He kept trying to get ahold of their group, and he eventually did. I hope we can get back to them though.

"There, look!" Morales pointed down to the streets to a delivery truck driving by. Rick and Glenn had made it and they were coming back for us. "Come on, we've gotta go."

I follows the rest of the group, save T-Dog who was uncuffing Merle, downstairs and to the delivery dock in the back. Seconds later, T-Dog came in screaming to open the door, so we did and Rick was outside waiting on us. We all scrambled in the back of the delivery truck, T-Dog coming in last without Merle. He couldn't have possibly left him there on purpose.

"I dropped the key," he suddenly said, probably guessing what we were thinking.

"Where's Glenn?" I asked from the front seat, right beside of Rick. As soon as I said it, I heard a car alarm going off as Glenn sped past us on the road in a Dodge Challenger. Even from inside the car with the windows rolled up, I could hear him screaming with joy as he drove past. I lightly laughed at his excitement of driving an expensive car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback is appreciated :)


	3. Chapter Three: Daryl Dixon

Beatrix

"Don't dwell on the fact that we left him behind," Morales pops his head in between Rick and I while we're pulling up the hill to their camp. "Nobody will be sad he's gone. Except maybe Daryl."

"Who's Daryl?" I ask him. He didn't have time to reply though because as soon as we stop, he jumps out of the back of the van to run to his family.

"Let's go meet our new group," Rick places a hand on my shoulder before getting out of the van. I followe behind him, trying to take in everyone around when I spot Lori bending down to talk to Carl.

"Rick," I poke his shoulder and point to the pair. He runs to meet Carl, literally tacking him in a hug and running on to Lori. A few tears come to my eyes as I watch the happy sight unfold. It reminds me of what it was like when a patient would wake up after surgery and I got to go tell the family.

"Doctor Zedler?" I whip my head around to look at Shane, who is standing beside of an RV.

"Hi, Shane," I wave at him from where I'm standing. I've operated on him before, and he was the one that told the EMTs to bring Rick to me. He thought I was a good suergon and I was proud of that.

"Did you?" He points to Rick and I nod my head, knowing what he was asking. He walks over to me and wrapped his arms around me in a hug, "Thank you."

"It's my job," I laugh as I hug him back. "And call me Beatrix. There's no need for the doctor title anymore."

"So who exactly are you two?" An older man with white hair and a beard asks, looking between Rick and I.

"Rick Grimes, I was the King County sheriff before all of this went down. I got shot and was in a coma, but Doctor Zedler here," he motions to me. "Saved my life."

"Thank you so much," Lori lets go of Rick and moved over to give me a hug. She whispers in my ear, "I remember you from the hospital."

"Yeah, I pulled the bullet fragments out of his kidney," I smile at her as we pulled away from the hug.

"How'd you get with him now though?" Lori wipe the tears from her eyes as the rest of the group listenes in.

"Well, um," I nervously push my hair behind my ears again. I don't like talking in groups of people I don't know. "I kind of stayed back in King County in my apartment and checked on him until he woke up yesterday."

"Well I know we'd all love to hear the full story," Shane says and everyone nods in agreement. "But it's getting dark and we need to make a fire. I'm sure you and Rick will tell us everything that happened around the fire, right?"

"Of course," Rick smiles and I give a small nod of agreement.

I help Lori and Andrea arrange chairs around the fire pit while the men gather wood. Soon enough, the sun is gone and we're all sitting around the fire with blankets wrapped around us. I'm sat between Glenn and Shane, half listening to everyone talk about what happened at the department store today. I tunevback into the conversation when someone asked Rick about walking up again.

"Disoriented. That's the word that comes closest to what I felt," he sighs.

"Words don't always give us the explanation we want," the older man, whose name I learned to be Dale, pipes up.

"Yeah," Rick trails off.

"Mom said you were dead," Carl looks up at Rick. The sight breaks my heart. Carl is such a sweet boy. He'd always bring Rick a toy or something when he came to visit him in the hospital. He was part of the reason I wanted to stay and help Rick.

"She had every right to believe that," Rick pats Carl's face. "Don't you ever doubt it."

"Before everything fell, I went to the hospital. They said they were going to move you and all of the other patients to Atlanta," Lori trails off, looking at me as if I was the one who told her that.

"I can see why they didn't after looking at Atlanta. By the looks of the hospital, it got overrun. Beatrix, do you know what happened there?" Rick asks me.

"Um, yeah," I sit up and brush my hair behind my ears again. I suppose I do that when I'm nervous. "I went straight to the hospital after I heard about the evacuation. I was going to go with you to Atlanta if they would let me, but it was a totally different story once I got there. I saw Shane running out as I was running in and went straight to your room. There was a bed covering your door, so I hopped over it and went on in. There were people in riot gear shooting up anyone in the hallway, dead or alive. I just kind of hid out in Rick's room until everything settled down."

"I'm can't begin to tell you how greatful I am to you, Beatrix," Rick smiles at me, and then Shane. "You too, Shane. I can't even begin to express it."

"There those words go falling short again," Dale gives a slight smile. "Has anyone given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He's not gonna be too happy about his brother getting left behind."

"I dropped the key, I'll tell him," T-Dog mutters.

"I'm the one that cuffed him, I'll do it," Rick offers.

"This isn't a competition," Glenn says, irritated. "And I don't mean to bring race into this, but it would sound a whole lot better coming from a white guy."

"I'm not gonna hide from what I done," T-Dog argues back.

"I agree with Glenn," I speak up for the first time without being spoken to. "If this Daryl guy is anything like his brother, he'll kill T-Dog on the spot."

"We could lie to him?" Andrea's sister, Amy, suggests.

"Or we could just tell the truth," Andrea fires back. "Merle was out of control and if we didn't do something, he was gonna get us all killed. Rick done what was necessary. Merle getting left behind was nobody's fault but Merle's."

"That's what we're supposed to tell Daryl? I'm sorry but I don't see a rational discussion coming from this," Dale looks at us like he can't believe what we're suggesting. "Word to the wise, we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from this hunt."

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it," T-Dog sits up straighter.

"We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea asks.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. The stairway is narrow. Not enough of the geeks can fit in there to break open the door Not that chain, and not that padlock," T-Dog tries to reason. "My point is Dixon is alive, and he's still handcuffed up on that roof."

"We should all head to bed," Lori suggests and everyone agrees. She walks over and places a hand on my shoulder, "You can sleep in Daryl's tent tonight, seeing as he's not here right now. We'll figure out something else when he gets back tomorrow though."

"Thank you, Lori," I smile and head off towards the tent she pointed at. There were two sleeping bags lying on the ground and I pick the one on the right. I curl upinside of it and drift off to sleep.

I wake up the next morning to screaming. It sounds like Carl, so I quickly get up and ran out of the tent. Lori and Rick run past me and I just follow them, wanting to see what's going on. Lori stops shortly before Rick does to comfort Carl, but I follow Amy and Andrea into the small clearing to see a walker chewing on a deer.

"Ew," Amy grimaced as the men begin beating the walker until Dale finally decapitated it.

"This is the first one up this far on the mountain," Dale sighs.

"They're running out of food in the city," another guy, who's name I don't know, says. The bushes start rattling again and we all stay still, waiting for whatever is about to come out.

"Ah, Jesus," Shane mumbles as a man in a wife beater with a crossbow stumbles out from behind a rock.

"Son of a bitch," he throws his free hand in the air. "That's my deer! Look at it all gnawed on by this filthy, disease bearing, motherless, poxy bastard." With each insult, he kicks the walker's body over and over. I'm assuming this man is Daryl, Merle's brother.

"That's not helping anything," Dale tries to calm him down.

"What do you know about it, old man? Take your stupid hat and go back to old golden pawn." He starts pulling his arrows out of the deer, "I've been tracking it for miles. Was gonna pull it back to camp and cook us up some vineson. Think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"

"I would not risk that," Shane says and the man grunts.

"It's a damn shame," the man shakes his head. "I got some squirrels though. Bout a dozen or so, it'll have to do."

"Oh god," Amy mutters again as the walker head starts moving.

"C'mon people, what the hell?" The man says, clearly irritated. He points his crossbow at it and shoots it in the eye. "Gotta be the brain. Don't ya'll know nothin?"

I follow Amy and Andrea back to the camp as we wait for the men to retun. We all exchange worried looks as Daryl, I was right about the name, comes back around yelling for Merle to come out and help him skin the squirrels.

"Daryl, slow up a bit I need to talk to you," Shane runs a hand through his hair as he walks closer to Daryl.

"Bout what?"

"Bout Merle," Shane says. Everyone's eyes are on them, "There was a, uh, problem in Atlanta."

Daryl nods his head, "He dead?"

"We're not sure," Shane replies.

"Well either he is or he ain't," Daryl throws his rope of squirrels on the ground, obviously getting angry.

"Look, there isn't an easy way to say this, so I'll just say it," Rick walks up to Daryl.

"Oh yeah? Who are you?"

"Rick Grimes."

"Well, Rick Grimes, you got somethin you wanna tell me?" Daryl growls.

"Your brother was a danger to us all," Rick says and I prepare for the worst. This guy seems just like Merle, "So I handcuffed him to a piece of metal on the roof. He's still up there."

"Hold on, let me process this," Daryl wipes his face. "You sayin you handcuffed my brother to a roof? And you left him there?"

"Yeah," Rick nods. Wrong decision because Daryl lunges at him, throwing punches. Rick avoids him and Daryl pulls a knife, starting to swing it at Rick. Shane quickly pins his arms behind his back and gets him to the ground in a headlock.

"You best let me go," Daryl yells.

"It's better if I don't," Shane reasons.

"Choke hold is illegal," Daryl fidgets in Shane's arms as Rick kneels in front of them.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. You think you can manage that?" Rick repeats himself after Daryl doesn't respond and Shane finally lets him go. "What I did wasn't on a whim. Your brother doesn't work or play well with others."

"It wasn't Rick's fault," T-Dog says. He's going to get himself killed, "I had the key, but I dipped it."

"And you couldn't pick it up?"

"I dropped it down the drain."

"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't," Daryl throws some dirt as he gets up off the ground.

"Yeah, well maybe this will," T-Dog walks closer to him. "I chained the door shut so the geeks couldn't get at him."

"That's got to count for something," Rick reasons.

"To hell with all ya'll," Daryl yells and wipes his face off. "Just tell me where he is so I can go get him."

"He'll show you," Lori says from the door of the caravan. "You have a map, don't you?"

"I'm going back too," Rick says, looking down.

"Me too," I step forward, looking to Rick. "All of my stuff is in your car. If we're going to stay here, it's crutial that we get all of it back."

"And who the hell are you?" Daryl asks, looking at me.

"Beatrix," I turn to him. "I'm a doctor."

"Yeah, she's comin with us," Daryl looks around at everyone. "Merle might have an infection or somethin'."

Everyone starts going back to what they were doing before and I just kind of stand in the middle of everything, not knowing what to do.

"Beatrix," I turn around to see Lori walking my way. "Do you want a change of clothes? We can wash those for you while you're gone, if you're really going."

"Yeah, that would be nice," I smile. "I have to go though. While I was checking up on Rick, I managed to steal a lot of medical supplies and such from the hospital. I doubt they'll be needing it anymore, but we might. I need to get them back."

"Well, I wish you good luck," she smiles and hands me a change of clothes.

"Thank you," I smile back at her before heading to the tent I slept in last night to change clothes. I examine my blue scrubs after they're off of my body. They really are disgusting with dirt and blood splattered on them. I have no idea how they got in that bad of shape, but hopefully Lori can get them cleaned. Once I leave the tent, I hear Rick and Shane arguing.

"Now tell me, Rick, why you'd want to risk yours and Beatrix' lives for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?" Shane raises his voice.

"Hey, you better choose your words more carefully," Daryl warns.

"No. Douchebag is what I meant," Shane runs a hand through his hair and scoffs. "Merle Dixon wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dyin' of thirst."

"I have no interest in what he would or wouldn't do for me," Rick hooks his fingers into his belt loops. "I just know that I can't let a man die like that. We left him up there like a caged animal. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."

"So you, Daryl, and Beatrix? That's your big plan?" Lori questions from her spot on the ground. "No offense, Beatrix."

"None taken," I mutter, taking very much offense. I'll be fine with Daryl and Rick in the city.

"Well," Rick turns to look at Glenn.

"Oh come on," Glenn mutters, taking his cap off and running a hand through his hair.

"Look, I know it's not right of me to ask, but I'm sure that Beatrix and Lori would feel much better if you came along," Rick pleads. "You said so yourself, you can get in and out real quick without a problem. Please?"

"Fine," Glenn agrees and Shane let's out a huff of frustration.

"So now you're gonna risk four lives?"

"Five," T-Dog adds.

"Huh. My day just keeps gettin' better and better," Daryl huffs while, very aggressively, cleanin his arrows.

"I don't see anybody else volunteering to go save your brother," T-Dog fights back.

"Why you?" Daryl questions.

"You couldn't even begin to understand," T-Dog shakes his head. "You don't speak my language."

"Just know that you're puttin' everyone here at risk, Rick. Not just the four people you're draggin' into the city. C'mon, man, you saw that walker up here. We need every able body up here to protect this camp," Shane shouts.

"Seems to me that what you really need here is guns," Rick smirks.

"And medical supplies," I add in.

"What guns?" Shane demands. "What medical supplies?"

"Six shotguns, two high powered rifles, and over a dozen hand guns. I cleaned out the cage before I left home. Plus two suitcases and three duffle bags full of whatever medical supplies Beatrix brought. We had to ditch the car when we got swarmed. It's just sittin' there in the middle of the street waitin' to be driven away," Rick looked to me.

"Yeah, um, there's a lot of gauze and antibiotics. I could probably treat whatever injury anybody had with what's in the car," I explain.

"What kind of ammo you got?" Shane looked between us.

"Seven hundred rounds, assorted," Rick replies.

"You went through hell to find us," Lori throws down the shirt she was holding. "So now you're telling me that you're just gonna leave again?"

"I don't want you to go," Carl looks up at Rick with sad eyes.

"Shane's right," Lori says, getting out of her seat. "Merle Dixon? He isn't worth one of your lives even with guns and medical supplies thrown in."

"You don't understand," I step in, insulted that she doesn't comprehend how much use all of that stuff could be to us. "Lori, what's in that car could last us months and it could very well save yours or Carl's life one day. So please, just let us go. We'll come back to you in one piece."

Lori drops her head in defeat and Rick goes to talk to Carl. I fidget around a little, due to the odd glances I was getting from a few different people. I mean, I don't blame them because I haven't really spoken up yet, but still. At least try to make it discreet.

"C'mon girl, what are you waitin' for? We ain't got all day," I look up to see Daryl reaching his hand out to me from inside the van. I hesitantly take it and he hoists me up into the back before kicking the horn and screaming at Rick to hurry up. After a few moments of talking to Shane, Rick finally hops in and we start on our way.

"He best be okay," Daryl glares at T-Dog, breaking the silence we sat in the whole way here. "That's all I've got to say on the matter."

"I told you I locked the door," T-Dog rolls his eyes. "The geeks can't get at him."

"We walk from here," Glenn puts the cube van in park and we all jump out.

"Merle first or the car?" Rick asks after we make our way through a break in the fencing.

"Merle! We ain't even havin' this discussion," Daryl waves his crossbow around and I let out a small chuckle from beside of him. He shoots me a death glare and I immediately shut up.

"We are," Rick looks to Glenn. "You know the geography better. Merle or car?"

"Merle first, he's closer. Getting the car first would mean doubling back and we're gonna have a hard enough time as it is getting the car out of the city," Glenn shakes his head as we quietly make our way back to the department store.

"You are one ugly skank," Daryl says, shooting a lone walker in the head before removing his arrow and wiping it on his pant leg. We quickly scramble up the stairs to the roof and Rick cuts the padlock and chain off. Daryl throws it open, "Merle! Merle!"

I gasp as I walk over the little bridge to where Merle previously sat. Now, there was only an empty pair of bloody cuffs hanging from the pipe, a handsaw, and Merle's bloody, unattached hand.

"No, no no," Daryl scrunches his face up and begins kicking the ledge.

"Daryl," I place a hand on his shoulder, but he just smacks it away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you think :)


	4. Chapter Four: Grady

Beatrix

Daryl stomps around a minute longer and I go to examine Merel's unattached hand. There's not much blood, so I'm assuming that he used a tourniquet of some sort.

"I will not hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it," I hear Rick say. Once I turn around to see what's going on, Daryl is lowering his crossbow from T-Dog's face and Rick is lowering his gun from the side of Daryl's head.

"You gotta do-rag or somethin'?" Daryl asks T-Dog, who hesitantly hands him one. He then moves over to crouch down beside of me and picks up the hand, examining it, "Ain't that a bitch. The blade musta' been too dull for the cuffs."

"He had to have used a tourniquet to keep the bleeding down," I tell Daryl as he wraps the hand up in the rag from T-Dog and places it in Glenn's bag.

"No shit," he scoffs. I understand that he's in a bad situation right now, but he doesn't have to be unnecessarily rude.

We all silently follow Daryl to the other side of the roof and down another set of stairs while he screams Merle's name, hoping he'll just hop out of somewhere. I keep my knife held tightly in my left hand as we enter an office of some sort. Daryl takes out another lone walker before we make our way to another section.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sum' bitches one handed," Daryl mutters, jesturing to the two dead walkers lying on the floor. "Toughest asshole I've ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails."

"Any man could pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is," Rick countered. We continue following his trail to another room that looks like a kitchen.

"Aye, Merle!" Daryl shouts and Rick shushes him.

"We're not alone here, remember?"

"Yeah, but we gotta find Merle. He could be bleedin' out. Ya said so yourself," Daryl starts arguing with Rick when I notice something in the corner of the room.

"Oh god," I mutter, walking over to a lit stove. There's a metal iron with pieces of burnt skin sticking to it laid on the counter beside of it.

"What's that burnt stuff?" Glenn questions.

"Skin," I sigh. "He cauterized his stump."

"I told ya he was tough," Daryl looks at Rick. "Ain't nothin can kill Merle but Merle."

"I wouldn't take that on faith," I mutter, holding back a laugh at how terrible his word choice is.

"Didn't stop him from bustin' outta this death trap," Daryl ignores me, walking over to a shattered window. "He's alone as far as he knows. Went out there, survivin'."

"You call that survivin'? He could be out there passed out on the street for all we know," T-Dog scoffs.

"Better than bein' handcuffed to a roof and left to rot by you sorry pricks," Daryl starts getting angry again and I sigh in frustration. He turns to me, "What's wrong with you, huh? You're the doctor here. Tell me what kinda' chances he has out there with that wound of his."

"Well, he cauterized it do it shouldn't be bleeding so bad," I start, but then realize Daryl is giving me a 'come on, idiot, we already know that' type of look. "If he didn't lose too much blood before getting here, which it looks like he didn't, he shouldn't be passing out anytime soon. The heat probably killed any type of bacteria that got in, unless it was already in his bloodstream, then we'd have a problem. But that's not likely. If we could find him, I could give him antibiotics and try to monitor it to make sure he's fine."

"You heard the girl, let's go," Daryl holds his crossbow and starts walking towards the exit, expecting him to follow us.

"Wait, Daryl," Rick puts a hand up. "We can't go out on the streets. It's too dangerous."

"Like hell it is," Daryl swings his crossbow around, aiming it at nothing particular. "We're goin' to look for Merle and we best find him."

"Listen, I'll help you, but not without those guns," T-Dog crosses his arms. "I'm not about to go walkin' around those streets with just my good intentions."

"Same," I quietly say. "I don't feel safe with just my knife in a place like thus."

"You even know how to use a gun?" Daryl glares at me. "Ya barely

"Well, no, but I'd just feel safer if-" Daryl cut me off mid sentence.

"Then it don't matter if you got one or not! It ain't gonna help ya if ya ain't got a damn clue how to use it," Daryl yells, knocking some random cans off of a shelf.

"No, they're right," Rick tries to calm Daryl down. "We'll get the car, find another one on the streets, and ride around to look for him. You think you can handle that?"

"Yeah, whatever," Daryl mumbles. "Let's just get to it."

"Follow me," Glenn says, walking to an office room. "Like you all said, I know the geography. I can get to the car with the stuff without a problem."

"How?" Rick asks and Glenn ignores him for now. Glenn drops to the floor with a sharpie, drawing out a map of where we were. He grabbs some paper clips and post-its and begins using them to tell us his plan.

"Beatrix, Daryl and I will be in this alley way, and T-Dog and Rick will be in this one, two blocks down," Glenn explains.

"Why two blocks down?" T-Dog asks, taking a seat. "And why do you want Daryl and Beatrix with you?"

"If either of us can't make it back, we'll have a back up plan and can come down that way to you," Glenn uses his paper clips to show us. "I want them be with me because Daryl's crossbow is quieter than Rick's gun and Beatrix doesn't have a weapon. If she gets in trouble, I'd rather Daryl be protecting her than Rick. Like I said, quieter weapon. Anyway, Rick and T-Dog you'll just have to wait for me to come and get you in the car I hotwire. Beatrix, you'll have to run and get Rick's car. Once you've got it, you can drive back by and pick Daryl up. We'll take the north end of the city and you two take the south. We'll meet back up at the cube van in two hours."

"What do you mean I'll have to run to get Rick's car?" I ask quietly.

"It's not that far, you'll be fine," Glenn assures me and I nod. I really don't want to do it, but I know that I have to.

"We what are we waitin' on?" Daryl asks, getting up. He reaches me and hand and pulls me up too, "We need to get goin'. Merle could be out there lookin' for us right now!"

"Alright. Good luck, we'll see you in two hours," Rick says to Daryl, Glenn and I. We nod and make our way to the alley we're supposed to be at.

"Ya'll got balls for a Chinaman and a lady," Daryl grunts, pointing his crossbow out the fence, ready to shoot anything that may come near us.

"I'm Korean, you sexist shit," Glenn mutters before grabbing my right arm and running out into the street.

I grab my knife out of my belt with my left hand, and hold it high. As we ran, two walkers got a little too close to me, so I had to stab them. I cringed as I done it, but kept on running. Glenn finally lets go of my arm and I look at him in confusion.

"Go!" Glenn whispers, pointing at Rick's car. I nod and run towards it, taking out another walker on the way. Once I'm in, I slam the car door shut and start the ignition. It takes a second, but it finally starts and I drive off back to Daryl.

"Hurry up and get in!" I yell out the window I just rolled down. Daryl quickly jumps in and I hit the gas, driving away from the walkers that are trying to attack the car.

"Pull over right here and let me drive," Daryl orders.

"Don't tell me you're one of those people that think women can't drive," I scoff and continue driving until I have lost sight of the walkers following us.

"Just do it," he replies and I roll my eyes, but pull over anyway. If he wants to drive, he can drive. We quickly switch places and daryl takes off and rolls down the windows, "Start yellin' for Merle. Maybe he'll hear ya."

I done as he said for a little while as we drove as slow as we could down the streets without the walkers being able to get to us. Eventually, I got tired of tilting my head out the window and began to pull my feet up into the seat so I could sit on the car door.

"The hell are ya doin'?" Daryl cautiously asks me, only taking his eyes off the road for a second.

"I'm gonna sit on the window so I don't have to tilt my head. Slow down so I don't fall out," I say, pulling myself up so I'm squatting in the seat, waiting for him to slow down.

"You're gonna fall out," he warns as he slows down.

"I'll be fine. Just don't make any sharp turns. We've still got an hour and a half left before we have to meet the others," I pull myself up and plant my butt on the window with my legs still inside the car, holding onto the handle bar on the inside.

"Whatever," Daryl grumbles and speeds back up. We both continue to look for Merle, calling out his name every time we turn a street corner.

"Daryl, I don't think-" he cuts me off.

"Save it," he shushes me and I fall silent. "And why the hell is there a pole in the backseat?"

"It's an IV pole," I quietly say. "It might come in handy." We fall silent again until we turn another corner and see a hospital. It seems to have some survivors because there's people in cop uniforms working on cars in the parking lot behind a chain link fence.

"Get down in the car. Now," Daryl demands and I do as he says, again. "Think they could have Merle in there?"

"I dunno. Wanna ask 'em?" I suggest.

"Like hell I do," Daryl scoffs. "They'll probably try ta kill us."

"No they won't," I counter. "Stop the car and go ask if they've seen him."

"You're comin' with me," he grumbles, parking the car and getting out with his crossbow. I quickly grab one of the guns from the backseat and follow after him as he strides up to the hospital. Judging from the sign, it's called Grady Memorial.

"Hold up, there's no need to get violent. Just drop your weapons and we can talk," the female officer says from the other side of the gate, holding her hands up.

"Ya seen my brother anywhere?" Daryl keeps his bow pointed at the lady as the officers start to gather around. I keep my gun raised as well, fully aware that I have no idea how to work it.

"What does he look like? Does he have a name?" She gently asks him, I assume hoping we'll drop the weapons.

"Name's Merle, only got one hand. Just cut it off. You seen him?" Daryl pushes.

"Daryl, walkers are coming," I whisper to him, noticing the small group making their way towards us.

"If you lower your weapons, we'll let you in. We're not a threat to you," the woman tries to reason. I look to Daryl and he nods his head as the woman unlocks the gate and we slip through.

"Have you seen my brother?" Daryl yells, yet again. I gently place the gun in the wasteband of my pants and Daryl only slightly lowers his crossbow.

"I'm Dawn," the woman reaches out her hand and I shake it, Daryl just grunts. "You said your brother just cut off his hand?"

"Yeah. Now answer my damn question. You seen him?"

"No, I'm afraid I haven't," Dawn shakes her head. "Have you got a group? If you don't, you're more than welcome to stay here. We're looking for hands to help out around here. Especially people in the medical field, considering we are running a hospital."

"We'll I'm a d-" I start to tell her I'm a doctor, but Daryl interrupts.

"We've got our own group. We're gonna leave now too," he kicks some dirt and turns around, taking his knife out and stabbing the walkers through the fence that had gathered around.

"You're welcome to come back any time," Dawn calls as we leave the fence. "We'll try to look for your brother. I hope you find him!"

Daryl ignores her and gets back in the car, taking off as soon as I'm inside with my door shut. Two hours is almost up, so we begin making our way back to the cube van. When we got there, we had to wait about ten minutes, but eventually the car that Glenn had hotwired pulled onto the train tracks beside of us.

"You find him?" Daryl asks, getting out of the car.

"No," Rick shakes his head and Daryl punches the cube, letting out a string of curse words. "We need to get back to camp. It's getting dark."

"I'll take Beatrix and drive the car," Glenn volunteers and I nod. We all get back into the vehicles and drive back to camp. It's well past dark by the time we get there and pulling up the hill, we can her gunshots.

"Oh God," Glenn says, horrorstruck. There's a horde of walkers coming at all of the people in our camp, half of them already bitten. I quickly exit the car, grabbing the bag of guns and handing them out to Glenn, Daryl, Rick and T-Dog.

We run into the mess and I start giving out guns to the rest of the people. Shane looks furious as I hand him a shotgun, but I try to ignore it. After I've made sure everyone has a gun, I run to the RV, killing two walkers on the way. I drop down into one of the seats at the table and catch my breath.

"Are you bit?" Lori frantically asks me. "Is Rick alright?"

"No, I'm fine. No bites or scratches," I shake my head. "Rick's fine too. He's out there right now."

I pull my knees up to my chest and rest my head on them. My eyes go out of focus as everyone runs around in a panic and I'm just too lazy to put them back into focus. I don't know how long I sit there before I eventually fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Beatrix has already met Daryl and they don't get along very well. Any predictions for the future?


	5. Chapter Five: Jim

Beatrix

I wake up the next morning to find everyone gone from the RV. I'm in the same position I fell asleep in, so I stretch out my muscles, expecting the crick I have in my neck. A small gasp escapes my lips as I walk outside, taking in the aftermath of the attack last night. Dead bodies litter the ground thoughout the camp, along with a small pile of burning bodies off to the side. Daryl is walking around, taking a pick axe to each body's head for safe measure, while Glenn, T-Dog, and Morales are pulling bodies into the fire.

"Good morning, Beatrix," Lori smiles weakly up at me and I give her a small nod in return. "Do you want something to eat?"

"That would be nice," I follow her over to the fire pit where there's a cooker with some type of meat in it. Lori hands me a bowl of it and I just eat it, not questioning it. "How many people did we lose?"

"A lot," Lori sighs. "Carol lost her husband and Andrea lost her sister."

"Amy?" I question, feeling slightly sad. Lori nods her head and points over to Andrea sitting by her sister's dead body.

"We need to put a bullet in that girl's brain and call it a day," Shane complains, sitting down on the log next to me and taking a bowl of the mystery meat.

"Shane, we need to let her grieve. If she reanimates, then we'll have to deal with her," I say and Shane just scoffs. He's clearly still upset about us leaving for Atlanta.

"Whatever man," he shakes his head and eats his meat from his bowl. While we're sitting down, Glenn has a small freak attack about burying our people and not burning them, and then Daryl screamed about how we had this coming because we left his brother for dead. I quickly finish up my food and go find Rick.

"Anything I can do?" I ask Rick, hoping that he won't make me stab any of the bodies in the head.

"Well, you could start-" he's cut off mid-sentence by Jacqui screaming.

"Jim's been bit! A walker got him," she stands up and points at him, backing away as if the disease was airborn and she would catch it just by breathing near him. Everybody begins to gather around the two of them.

"No, guys I'm okay. I promise," Jim grabs his shovel, holding it up in defense as Daryl runs at him. T-Dog quickly holds his arms down as Daryl lifts his shirt up, revealing a prominent bite mark on his abdomen. He continues to mutter, "I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay."

"C'mon," Shane grabbs Jim's arm and leads him to sit down on a crate behind the RV before returning to the small huddle of us to discuss his fate.

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head, and the dead girl's and be done with it," Daryl grunts, swinging his pickaxe back and forth.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane asks.

"Yeah, and I'd thank ya while ya did it," Daryl replies, dropping the top of his axe to the ground.

"I hate to say it, never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right," Dale sighs.

"No. Jim isn't a rabid dog, Dale. He's a sick, sick man. That's where we draw the line," Rick argues.

"I thought the line was pretty clear," Daryl says, getting more and more agitated. "Zero tolerance for walkers or those to be."

"What if we could get a cure? I heard the CDC was still up and running," Rick places his hands on his hips.

"Yeah, I heard a lot of things before the world went to hell," Shane scoffs. "Fort Benning is our bet shot. If there's any military protection left at all, it'll be there."

"I agree with Rick," I say. "I've been to the CDC, I even done some of my observations there. It should still be up and running."

"Yeah, well ya'll go look for some aspirin or whatever. Somebody needs to grow some balls around here and take care of this damn problem!" Daryl yells, raising his pickaxe and running at Jim, ready to swing.

"Hey! Hey!" Rick runs after him and pushes his gun to Daryl's forehead. "We don't kill the living."

"That sounds awful nice comin' from a man with a gun pointed at my head," Daryl knocks Rick's gun away and drops his pickaxe.

"This is not the way to handle things, Daryl," Shane steps inbetween Jim and Daryl.

"Wait," I run over to them. "In this condition, Jim won't make it halfway to the CDC. Maybe I could give him some blood thinners to keep him alive until we get there. Walker blood is thick and chunky, so if I give him blood thinners, his blood won't clot as fast. I might be able to save his life until we can get to the CDC for help."

"You seriously think that'll work?" Daryl laughs and I nod my head. "You're dumber than I thought ya were."

"Oh really? I'm dumb?" I scoff, offended. "Which one of us has the medical degree? Did you attend medical school for eight years? How about doing residency hours in the ER for two years? Maybe it was you that spent the last three years in trauma surgery, saving dozens of lives. I thought that was me, but maybe I got it mixed up. Maybe you're the one with all of the medical knowledge here, so why don't you try to save Jim. Go ahead, try your best to keep him alive. Then you can have the right to call me dumb. Otherwise, don't try to go there."

"I hope he turns and rips your damn neck out," Daryl spits at the ground beside of my feet and I felt a pinch of sadness inside. I don't understand how some people could say such awful things and be so inconsiderate of other people.

"Don't be rude to people who are only trying to help," I look up at him. He just waves his hand and walks off somewhere away from everyone else. It's silent for a few moments, but eventually Rick breaks it.

"So you really think that could help him?" Rick asks me.

"Yes and we're wasting time. The longer we talk about it, the lower chances he'll have of surviving," I explain and Rick nods.

"I'll get your things out of the trunk of the car. Get Jim in the RV and I'll bring it all to you," I nod and turn to Shane.

"Will you help him into the RV? He doesn't look very capable of walking it on his own," I ask nicely. Shane nods and wraps Jim's arm around his shoulders, helping him into the RV.

"Anything I can do to help you?" Jacqui comes up to me.

"Yeah," I nod. "Get an empty bucket, a pan with water, some type of wash cloth, and water for him to drink."

"I'll be back with it soon," Jacqui assures me and hurries off to get what I need. I quickly make my way into the back of the RV to where Jim is. He's half sitting up, propped up on the back wall, which is perfect for right now.

"Unbutton your shirt," I tell him, sitting down on the chair beside of the bed he's laying on. Rick and Glenn bring in all of the suitcases and duffle bags and sit them on the bed behind me. "Thank you. Can you get me the IV pole too?"

"I'll get it," Gelnn volunteers and Rick leaves after him. A couple minutes later he's back with it and I mutter a quick thanks before getting to work.

"Would you like an IV drop or an injection? The injection would be intramuscular," I ask Jim, wanting him to have choice in what happens.

"Which would hurt less?" He breathes out. I touch my hand to his forehead and he's already burning up.

"Probably the IV drip. I'm not a fan of intramuscular injections," I give a small laugh, trying to lighten the mood a little bit. It doesn't really help though.

"Then that's what I want," Jim says and I nod. This is my comfort zone. I'm comfortable with practicing medicine.

I rummage through the bags until I find everything I need. I slip my hands into a pair of latex gloves before dabbing the bend in his arm with rubbing alcohol. He winces as I slip the needle into his brachial vein and tape it down. I hook the bag of Lovenox onto the IV pole and set the drip speed in the tubing before hooking it into the needle, letting the medicine flow freely into his circulatory system. Jacqui gets back with the things I asked right before I started to clean the bite mark. She washes off his abdomen with the plain water and I douse it in rubbing alcohol right after. Jim sucks in a breath from the pain, but really though, it probably hurts super bad.

"I think it needs stitches," I mutter and grab a sterile needle and thread from one of my endless bags of medical supplies.

"Will it hurt?" Jim asks. I feel so bad for him and I want to minimize his pain, even thought I know how bad stitches hurt with no anesthetic.

"Probably. I can give you a painkiller, though I don't know how fast it'll kick in," I offer.

"I'll take it," Jim nods and I begin digging in my bags again, pulling out a couple of prescription strength ibuprofen and give them to Jim along with a bottle of water that Jacqui brought.

Jim lies flat on his back when I start stitching up his wound. He squirms, even though I told him not to, but I guess it's fine. I still managed to see him up fine with minimal bleeding, considering he's on a blood thinner right now. He still has a fever though and I need to worry about that. Taking the rag and dipping it in the pan of water, I dab off his chest and forehead in an attempt to cool him down.

"You need to stay laid down," I tell Jim while still dabbing off his forehead. "The last thing with need is for you to bleed out from a popped stitch. The ibuprofen should help with your fever too."

"I'm going to die, aren't I?" My heart drops at his question. I've gotten the same one from patients in the past and it's not pretty. I always have to give them the same bull crap docor response, especially if I know that they have little chance of survival.

"I'm going to do everything in my power to save you," I tell him, knowing that the odds are stacked against him. "I don't know what kind of effect the walker bite will have on your immune system though. The medication I've given you could help fight off the disease long enough for you to build anti-bodies for it, but I'm not sure. It would help me so much if I knew if it was an infection, fungus, bacteria...." I trailed off, thinking.

"Everything okay in here?" Rick walks into the RV and back to us. "We just got done burying everyone."

"We're doing fine," I give him a small smile. "I've stitched him up and got him on the medication that should help him. When are we leaving for the CDC?"

"Right now, actually," Rick sits down beside of the medical supplies on the bed behind me, so I have to turn around to look at him. "Are you alright with riding back here with him? Do you think you'll need any help?"

"Yeah, I'd love to stay back here and monitor his condition. If Jacqui isn't doing anything else I'd love for her to be here with us," I look to Jim and he nods in agreement.

"I'll let her know you want her. How are you feeling, Jim?"

"Not terrible yet," he weakly smiles and let's out a small cough.

"Good, good," Rick stands back up. "We better get going."

"Thanks, Rick," I lightly touch his hand before he leaves the RV and Jacqui comes in, taking his seat on the bed.

"Everybody okay back there?" Dale calls from the driver's seat.

"Yeah, we're good," I call back and lean against my seat, ready to go.

-

"You all should just leave me here," Jim breathes out. We stopped a few minutes ago because of something that had to do with the radiator hose in the RV, I'm not exactly sure though.

"Jim, your fever is down and we're almost there. You can do this," I smile and pat the cloth against his forehead again

"I don't want to be a burden on you any longer," he coughs and I look to Jacqui.

"You aren't a burden on us, Jim. We want to help you," she pats his knee and gives him a warm smile.

"Are you in any pain?" I ask. "I can give you something stronger than ibuprofen if you want."

"No, no. I'm good," Jim closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "Doesn't hurt much. I can make it."

-

We arrive at the CDC about an hour later, while the sun is setting. Everyone starts filing out of the cars and up to the entrance except for Glenn, Jacqui, Jim and I. Glenn stayed behind with us to help carry Jim in, seeing as he's not in well enough shape to do it himself.

"I'll old his IV if you guys can help move him in. I'll have to carry the bags too," I suggest and Glenn and Jacqui nod before helping Jim up and maneuvering him out of the RV.

I make sure to grab only my bag of clothes because the CDC should have medical supplies in there. There's no need to bring mine in, and if we have to leave in a hurry we'll still have everything. I let out an involuntary gag as I step out of the vehicle behind the others, still clutching the IV bag. The smell of the walkers and dead bodies is so overwhelming it's making me dizzy.

"This doesn't look too good," Glenn sighs as we hear Rick and Shane screaming at eachother in the distance. The metal entrance door lifts open and we watch everyone shuffle inside. By the time we approach the doors, the men are running back outside to the cars.

"Daryl!" I grab his arm as he runs by me, seeing as he's the last one that I could catch. "Can you bring the IV pole from the caravan please?"

"Sure," he grunts and runs off. We get inside the building and a man immediately approaches us.

"Is this the one infected?" He asks as if Jim isn't even there. I nod my dead anyway and he smiles, "Excellent. When they get back, you all can follow me. I'd like to perform some tests on him if that's fine."

"Ask him and see," I gesture to Jim. "It's not up to me."

"You can do whatever you need," Jim breathes out as the men run back in and slam the metal barricade back down.

"Let's go," the man waves his hand and leads us all to an elevator, which we take down to the lowermost level of the facility.

"Are we underground?" Carol asks, nervous.

"Why? Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner let's out a small laugh. Dick.

"Try not to think about it," he smiles again and leads us down to the main control room, telling us about how it's only him left here and nobody else, then taking us to a room to draw blood. "I'd like to get Jim's first and every hour after that, up until the point of death."

"Only if we can't figure out a cure, right?" I give the man a look and he catches what I'm saying.

"Yeah...." he trails off and begins takin everyone's blood. I walk over to the rows of chairs and sit myself down between Glenn and Daryl.

"Glenn, are you alright?" I ask him, putting a hand to his forehead. "You have no color in your face."

"Don't like needles," he shakes his head and I let out a small laugh.

"You shouldn't be afriad of them. They don't even hurt that bad," I tell him and turn to look at Daryl. "You afraid of needles too?"

"I ain't afriad of nothin'," he growls and gets up, going to get his blood drawn.

"Is he always so rude?" I ask Glenn and he just nods. He looks like if he opens his mouth, he'll throw up. I've never understood the fear that people have of needles. They aren't very painful and they could quite possibly save your life. Then again, I've never been afraid of anything medical that could save my life.

"Beatrix," someone calls my name. I turn around to see that it's Daryl and he's done, "Your turn.

"Oh," I say more to myself, walking up to the man and sitting down. "Doctor Beatrix Zedler."

"Doctor Edwin Jenner," he shakes my hand and I reach my arm out for him to put the needle in. "So you're the one that's kept Jim alive this long?"

"Yeah," I wince as he inserts the needle, but then relax. "We thought that maybe you had a cure or at least some answers?"

"I've been trying, but I accidentally blew up my latest samples earlier today" he sighs and begins taking my blood. "We could use Jim though, that is if you're willing to help me?"

"Of course," I nod. "I'd love to see everyone's blood test results too. Could you hook me up with a copy?"

"Sure thing. Just meet me in the control room after dinner," he removes the needle from my arm and tells me to send Glenn over.

"Want me to hold your hand?" I tease Glenn as he shakily walks over to Jenner. He flips me off in response and I laugh.

"Are you okay?" Jenner asks him as he stands up and almost falls over. I catch him and keep him from falling though.

"He hasn't eaten in days," I inform Jenner and he tells us to follow him again. This time, he leads us all to the cafeteria to prepare a meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Beatrix is very sensitive, and Daryl is a jerk. How do you think that will work out for them? Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter Six: CDC

Beatrix

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with their dinner," Dale laughs, pouring Lori more whine. "And in France."

"And when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some too," Lori covers Carl's glass with her hand.

"Oh come on, what could it hurt?" Rick chuckles from beside her. She shrugs, moving her hand from the cup. Dale laughs and pours Carl some wine, all of us watching intently waitin for his reaction.

"Ewww!" He makes a face as if he's tasted something sour and we all let out laughs.

"That's my boy," Lori ruffles his hair and Dale returns to his seat. I'm sitting back on the counter, once again, between Daryl and Glenn. Though Daryl is up right now, getting more whiskey.

"We all need to slow down," T-Dog jokes.

"Except for you, Chinaman. I wanna see just how red your face can get," Daryl points at Glenn, laughing. Glenn blushes and looks down in response.

"We haven't properly thanked our host yet," Rick stands up and holds his glass up, tilting it to Jenner.

"Booyaaaah!" Daryl pumps his fist in the air, jumping back up onto the counter beside of me. Everyone follows him, letting out claps and yells for Jenner.

"Now hold up a minute," Shane holds his hand up.

"Shane, not now," Rick shoots him a glare.

"No, we came here for answers, man. Where are all the other doctors? Why is it just you here?" Shane asks.

"When things started to get bad, many people left to be with their families. Others couldn't handle walking out the door," Jenner shakes his head. "They chose to opt-out, as to put it nicely. There was a rash of suicides."

"Way to kill the mood," I shake my head and take another drink out of the now half empty bottle of wine in my hand.

"We should all probably get some rest," Rick suggests and everyone agrees, getting up and following Jenner.

"Most of the facility has been shut down, including housing, so you'll have to stay here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you'd like," Jenner walks down the hallway, gesturing to the different rooms. "There's a rec room at the end of the hall that you kids might enjoy, just don't plug in anything that will take power. Same goes for the showers, try to take it easy on the hot water."

"Did he just say hot water?" Glenn asks, smiling as Jenner walks away.

"You heard the man," I surprise myself by actually saying what I was thinking out loud and wiggling my eyebrows. "Conserve water, shower together."

"Let's go then," Daryl surprises me even more my picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder, walking down the hall ahead of everyone else.

"I didn't mean that I'm drunk!" I yell, hitting his back. I did not peg him to be a fun drunk, and I just hope he's not serious. "Daryl, put me down!"

"You're the one that suggested it, sweetheart," he opens a random door and slams it shut. I can hear everyone hollering from outside and I finally go limp and blush against his back.

"Can you put me down now?" I ask him.

"Mhmm," he drops me down onto a couch and sits down on the one across from me.

"You know I didn't mean that, right?" I arch my eyebrow and he nods.

"I know. Just thought it'd be funny," he shrugs and takes a sip of the bottle of Jack he'd brought from the cafeteria. "You can sleep in here if you want. We got two couches."

"Thanks," I pull my bag off my shoulders and sling it onto the floor. "I'm sorry about earlier today. When I went off on you about Jim. That was uncalled for and rude."

"Yeah, it was," he scoffs and I roll my eyes.

"You could be a doctor for all I know," I shrug and throw my legs onto the couch, leaning back against a pillow. "Are you?"

"Yeah, I'm a doctor and T-Dog is white," he rolls his eyes and I fail at holding back a laugh.

"Daryl, that's terrible!" I reach over to smack his arm, but then realize he isn't close enough to me for me to do that, so I just let my arm hang off the side of the couch.

"They both have the same likeliness of bein' true," he kicks off his boots and props his legs up on the couch, copying my same position. Silence falls between us for a few minutes before I decide to break it.

"I'm sorry about your brother too," I say, looking over at him.

"Don't," he warns.

"No, I really am. And I think he could be at that hospital with those cops, you know?" I can tell I'm making him mad, but I don't stop. "They probably found him, cause we didn't."

"Drop it," he takes another sip of his whiskey.

"Whatever," I stand up, grabbing my bag. "I'm gonna shower first."

"Thought we were supposed to conserve water?" He smirks at me from the couch.

"I'm not that drunk, Dixon," I laugh and open the door to the bathroom to take my shower.

I totally forgot about Jenner telling me to meet him in the control room. Also, I'm not so sober right now, so I take a quick cold shower in an attempt to sober up. I wrap myself in one of the robes on the shelf and slip my feet into a pair of house slippers and walk back out to the room with the couches.

"Daryl, I'm out," I say, patting my hair with a towel, trying to dry it. He doesn't respond, so I walk over to him and see that he's passed out. I slap his face a little, "Daryl, get up. You stink and you need a shower."

"Go away," he mumbles and turns over. I shrug my shoulders and take off down the hall. If he wants to stink, who am I to stop him?

"Hey, Beatrix," Rick smirks at me. "I was just talking to Jenner. You and Daryl have a good time?"

"Go home, Rick, you're drunk," I laugh and push him off down the hallway.

"I thought you'd never come," Jenner calls once I finally enter the room.

"I took a shower," I gesture to my robe and he nods. "Got any aspirin? I'm not fully sober."

"Yeah, sure," he rummages through a desk drawer and hands me a bottle. "I got the blood results back. Everything is normal."

"Let me see," I sit down and he hands me a copy of the blood test results. "Can I keep these?"

"If you want to," I quickly fold them and stuff them into the robe pocket. "Let's go back to Jim and see if we can find out something about this stupid disease."

"Did you bring him something to eat?" I ask. I didn't remember seeing Jim at dinner, but then also remembered that Jenner said he was going to take him to a quarantine room 'just in case'.

"Yeah, he should be done eating now though and we can do whatever tests we need," Jenner makes his way through many different doors, swiping his ID card and typing in a number each time. I remember having to do this when I done observations here, it wasn't very convenient.

"I was thinking," I push my wet hair behind my head. "Maybe I could take the person with the highest white count and maybe help them build up a resistance to the disease. Give them anti-bodies and essientally make them immune."

"That might actually work," Jenner agrees while opening the door to Jim's room. He was sleeping and I automatically feel a wave of guilt wash over me. We caged him up in here like an animal with nobody to keep him company and he's on his death bed. "We'll have go wake him up."

"Well, let's get to work," I mumbe and begin shaking Jim's shoulders.

-

I stumble down the hallway, back to where the rest of the group is. It's four thirty in the morning and Jenner and I just decided to turn in and stop running tests on Jim. Jim was ecstatic, seeing that he finally got to go back to sleep and we finally stopped poking at him. It was all for a good cause though, we could potentially find a cure.

I open a few doors, seeing a few too many sleeping people before I finally stumble upon the one with Daryl in it. I find some pillows and blankets on the closet and lay them out on the couch so I don't freeze to death like Daryl looks like he is. He's shivering and I sigh, taking a blanket and draping it over his sleeping body. He's not too bad, and you need to be nice to everybody.

A yawn escapes my lips as I slip underneath the covers I draped over the couch, not bothering to put any actual clothes on. The robe is comfy enough and I'm asleep pretty much as soon as my head hits the pillow.

-

"Get your ass up if you want to eat," I felt Daryl throw a pillow at me.

"What time is it?" I groan and sit up, stretching my limbs.

"Hell if I know," he scoffs. "Like eight?"

"Great," I grumble and get up off the couch, tightening my robe around me.

"You put that blanket on me last night after I was already asleep?" Daryl angrily asks me. "'Cause I sure as hell don't remember doing it."

"Yeah? I thought you'd get cold so I-"

"I don't need you tryin' to take care of me and I definitely don't need your help. Might as well stop being so damn nice while you're ahead," Daryl snaps and my eyes widen in surprise.

"I was only trying to do something nice," I look down at my feet. "I didn't mean to make you mad I'm sorry."

"Whatever," he grunts and leaves the room. I quickly throw on a pair of jeans and a random shirt and head back down to the cafeteria.

"Morning, Beatrix!" Carl smiles, "Are you hungover too? Mom said almost everyone would be."

"Yeah, I kind of am," I laugh and ruffle his hair, taking a seat between him and Glenn. "I have a killer headache and staying up most of the night didn't help too much."

"What were you doing up all night?" Rick shoots me a smirk and wiggles his eyebrows. "I remember seeing you in just a robe last night, walking out of Daryl's room. Does that have anything to do with it?"

"No, oh my God. I was helping Jenner do experiments. We were trying to see if we could figure this whole thing out," I shake my head and take some of the aspirin from the bottle on the table.

"Did you figure anything out?" Andrea asked.

"Not much. Just got the blood tests back and everything," I tell them while attempting to eat some eggs T-Dog had given me. "Jim's white count is completely gone. He isn't gonna last much longer."

"He didn't," Jenner says, walking in the room. "I stayed with him for a little bit after you went to bed. He passed at about five this morning."

"I don't mean to bombard you with questions first thing in the morning, Doc-" Dale starts, breaking the silence from the announcement of Jim's death.

"But you will anyway," Jenner pours himself a cup of coffee.

"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea butts in. Jenner motions for us to follow him back to the control room and we do.

"Vi playback TS-19," he commands and Vi complies.

"Those electrical impulses are everything that makes up you," Jenner explains what's happening on the screen, but I tune him out. We already went over this last night, but soon he starts talking about Jim and I tune back in, "I think Beatrix was onto something with giving him blood thinners. It could potentially lead to a cure in the future, but as of right now, we're completely clueless. Maybe we could get somewhere with it if we weren't going to run out of time."

"Ah man I'm gonna get shitfaced drunk again," Daryl rubs his hands over his face.

"You said we were going to run out of time," Dale speaks up from the back and points to the clock on the wall. "Would that happen to have anything to do with that clock over there?"

"Well-" Jenner starts, but Shane cuts him off.

"What happens when the clock gets to zero?"

"The basement generators run out of fuel," Jenner mutters and turns on his heel, leaving everyone standing there in confusion. Except for me, because I know what's going to happen.

"We're gonna go check the basement. Come on!" Rick yells and runs off toward the basement, taking Shane, Glenn and T-Dog with him.

"You know something," Daryl points at me. "You're chewin' on your fingernails. What happens when that clock hits zero?"

"Facility-wide decontamination," I push my hair behind my ear. "Before anyone is allowed to work or observe here, you have to take a couple of classes on C.D.C. safety. I took it and I remember. In the case of a catastrophic event, once the generators run out of fuel, there will be a facility wide decontamination."

"What does that mean?" Andrea asks me.

"We need to go pack our things. Just get everything you need and come back down here as soon as you're done," I speak to everyone. "We only have fourty-three minutes left."

"But what happens-" Andrea starts to ask, but I don't let her finish.

"Really, we don't have time to argue. Just go," I attempt to say as nicely as possible, though I'm getting very frustrated right now. Everyone follows me as I walk down the hall as quickly as I can to the room I slept in last night.

"The hell happens when the clock hits zero?" Daryl stops me, grabbing my arm and forcing me to look at him.

"I already told you," I shake my head and try to turn away, but he won't let me.

"No, that ain't all. Tell me the rest," he demands. I look down at my feet, but he uses his other hand to force my face to look at him. "Right now, Beatrix."

"HITs will be released to prevent anything from getting out," I mutter, trying to look anywhere but his eyes. I know exactly what's going to happen, I just don't want to admit it. Because admittance is acceptance and I don't want to die like that.

"Stop beatin' around the bush and just spit it out," Daryl still hasn't let go of my arms and I know I have to tell him.

"The place is going to blow up," I sigh and let fear overwhelm me.

"Dammit!" He finally lets go of me and runs a hand through his hair. "You serious?"

"I wish I wasn't," I shake my head and continue throwing my things together.

"Like hell I'm gonna die that that. That'll be the day," Daryl scoffs and grabs my arm again. He reminds me of Merle when we were on the roof just a few days ago. "Come on, we gotta get the hell out of here."

"We have to get the others too, Daryl," I stop him and he nods his head, releasing my arm. "I'll get everyone back to the control room and you get Rick and meet us there."

"Grab my shit," he motions to his bag laying on the couch and takes off. I roll my eyes at him, but I do it anyway. He's not very nice to me, or anyone for that matter, but I think he's just scared. I won't ever say that to him though.

"Lori!" I call, walking out in the hall with both bags on my back. "Lori hurry up, we have to go now."

"Why? What happened?" Lori pokes her head out of a room and I run towards it. Carol, Sophia and Carl are in there too.

"Daryl went to go find Rick," I try to be as calm as possible. "You guys just need to get your things and get to the control room as quick as you can."

"What's-" Carol starts, but I stop her.

"Please don't ask questions. I'm trying to save your life," I plead with them and they nod their heads. "Can you guys get Shane, T-Dog, and Glenn's things too?"

"Of course," Carol gives me a slight smile and I give her one back before muttering a 'thank you' and running back to the hallway to tell everyone else that it's time to go.

I gather up Dale, Andrea, Jacqui and everyone else that was upstairs and ushered them down to the control room so that we could find Rick and get out of here. Walking by the room that we got our blood drawn in, I remembered that we left Jim's IV pole in there and I quickly ran in there to get it. Once I had it, I quickly wheeled it down to the control room to find everybody screaming.

"Thirty minutes to decontamination," the computer voices as I walk down the stairs. Alarms start blaring and the doors behind me close.

"Did you just lock us in here?" Daryl yells at Jenner and runs at him. I'm sure he would actually kill him if people hadn't held him back.

"Wait, no! No, don't do it," T-Dog stepps in and tries to calm Daryl down. Shane picks him up and pulls him away from Jenner, Daryl still swinging.

"Jenner, let us out," Rick goes up to Jenner as I finally make it down to everyone else.

"Top exits are sealed shut. I can't open them, that's just something that the computers control," Jenner explains to everyone. "I told you once the front door closed, it wouldn't open again you heard me say it. It's better this way."

"What is?" Rick yells, throwing something off a random desk. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"

"Do you know what this place is?" Jenner jumps out of his seat and starts yelling as well. "We've protected the public from very nasty stuff. Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that couple take out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out, ever!" Jenner fixes his labcoat and sits back down, taking a deep breath. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure, a terrorist attack for example, HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"What's a HIT?" Rick asks.

"Ask your friend, Beatrix. She knows, she's been here before. She took the safety course, she knows exactly what this place is and what's going to happen," Jenner says and all eyes fall on me. "Go on, say it."

"A HIT," I try to swallow the lump in my throat. "is a high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosive that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. They're used in cases looking for the greatest amount of damage to be done. It sets the air on fire."

"Beatrix, you knew this and you didn't tell us?" Shane yells at me.

"I told Daryl," I point to him, hoping he won't throw me under the bus like Jenner did.

"She did," Daryl nods. "I came down here to get ya'll as soon as she did so we could get out, but this jackass locked us in."

"There's no pain. It's an end to everything," Jenner says. Everyone falls silent, either crying or attempting to break the doors down.

"Open the damn door!" Daryl screams at Jenner, who just ignores him. He then moves towards me, "Beatrix you give me that damn pole right now."

"What? No," I clutch my IV pole in my hand as he tries to take it from me. "Stop it, you might break it!"

"We're about to die and you're worried about me breakin' your stupid magic pole of medicine?" Daryl yells at me, still attempting to get the pole out of my grasp.

"Okay one, rude. Two, it is not stupid," I start to yell back at him, but he finally gets my hands pried off of the metal and runs back to the door, hitting it with my IV pole. "Daryl stop it!" I run at him, but I don't get too close because I don't want to end up getting adcidentaly hit.

"Out of my way!" Shane runs past Daryl and I with an axe in his hands and begins chopping at the door with it. T-Dog quickly hands one to Daryl, who wastes no time in jointing Shane. I quickly retrieve my pole and make my way back over to the rest of the women.

"We don't deserve do die like this," Carol sobs and I drop to the ground next to her.

"You know what's out there," Jenner turns on his chair to look at us. "A short, cruel life and an agonizing death. Is that really what you want for your wife and son, Rick?"

"I don't want this," Rick spits as Shane walks over.

"I can't make a dent in it," he wipes the sweat from his forehead.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner states.

"Yeah, well your head ain't!" Daryl runs at Jenner with his axe held high, fully ready to swig at him, but Dale and Rick catch him and make him stop.

"There's no point in trying to escape your inevitable death. This will take us down. It's our extinction event," Jenner says, looking around at all of us.

"This isn't right, Jenner. You know it isn't," I stand up and push my hair behind my ear. "You have to let us out, let us have a chance. You said it yourself that I was onto something. I could end this, given the time and the resources. Why would you want to waste that opportunity by locking me up in here and killing me? It's not right, Jenner and you know it."

"You're right," he sighs and begins punching buttons on the control key pad on the desk. "I can't open the topside doors, you already know that. But now you have your chance."

"Thank you," I tell him before gathering all of my things and running to the door like everybody else. Jacqui, Andrea and Dale stay behind while the rest of us attempt our escape.

"Daryl, Shane," Rick calls for the two men, who begin hacking away at the windows once we made our way back to the enterance.

"Rick, I have something that might help," Carol steps forward, rummaging through her purse. My fingernails are probably long gone by now due to my nervous biting.

"Carol, I don't think a nail file is really gonna help us right now," Shane shakes his head, but Carol ignores him and pulls out a grenade that looks exactly like the ones Rick and I had in the middle of the city.

"I found it in your pocket when you first got to camp and I washed your clothes. Knew it could come in handy," she smiles and hands it to him.

"Everybody get back!" Rick motions us all back towards a wall. My IV pole is safely in front of me and my body is hunkered down between a wall and Glenn. I watch as Rick pulls the pin and runs back to us. The grenade detonates and the glass shatters.

"Come on," Shane yells as everyone follows him out the window. There's been so much yelling and confusion today.

"Oh no," I whisper as I realize that fitting the pole out the window isn't going to be very easy. My hands are gripped around it, trying to pull it out when someone announces the presence of walkers.

"Just leave it!" Daryl growls at me, motioning for me to hurry.

"No! It could come in handy," I argue and continue pulling on it.

"Dammit, you're gonna get us killed," Daryl shoots an arrow at a walker who was getting too close and shakes his head. He turns around and runs back to me, yanking the pole through the window and handing it back to me. He then grabs my arm again. Everybody else is already in the cars and Dale is making his way out of the building with Andrea. "Don't pull it, just carry it and run."

My fear escalates as I remember that the time is almost up and the building is going to blow any second. I run as fast as my legs will take me, Daryl pulling me right behind him. Once we're close enough to his truck, he takes the pole from me and throws it into the bed of the truck. He quickly throws open the passenger door and shoves me into the floor board, jumping in and shutting the door right after. He lays half on the seats, and half over me as I feel a wave of heat pass over us. The sound of the building collapsing fills my ears while my face is pressed down on the dirty truck floor board.

"Ya alright?" Daryl asks after everything goes silent. He's already sitting up in the driver's seat and is pulling me out of the floor.

"Mhmm," I nod my head and push my hair behind my ears again.

"You're a dumbass, you know that right?" He starts the truck up and begins driving after everyone else. "Riskin' your damn life for a metal rod on wheels."

"It's important to me," I shrug my shoulders and pull my bag off of my back, laying it onto the seat between us. "Why'd you risk your life to save mine?"

"Didn't want your blood on my hands," he shrugs simply. "Seen you strugglin' and couldn't let you just die."

"Oh," I mumble and pull my legs up to my chest and lay my head against the window. Pretty soon I drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this chapter is kind of all over the place. Be sure to comment and let me know what you think, or if you have suggestions for what should happen next :)


	7. Chapter Seven: Sophia Peletier

Beatrix

My body jumps from being startled and I almost fall out of the truck. Before my butt leaves the seat though, someone catches me and pushes me back into a sitting position. I flutter my eyes open to see Daryl standing there with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Ya gotta get out. I'm ditchin' the truck because it's not good on gas," he explains while I grab my bag and hop out of the blue pickup.

"Where are you gonna ride then?" I question as he pulls my pole out of the truck bed and sits it down beside of me.

"Merle's motorcycle. Already filled it up and everything. Everyone's ready to go," Daryl pushes me towards the RV and I take the hint that I can't ride with him anymore. Not that I'd want to anyway. He's rude and he doesn't talk much. I'm not a huge fan of rude people.

"Hey, Dale," I smile, walking up to the RV. "Got room for one more?"

"Of course," Dale pats my shoulder and ushers me in the RV. "You can just put your stuff in the back with the medical supplies."

"Thank you, Dale," I climb into the RV and set my bag and IV pole in the back room, then sit down at the table beside of Shane. "What are you guys doing?"

"Cleaning guns," Shane mumbles. "You know how to shoot?"

"No. I never really felt the need to learn," I shrug. It's true, I never tried to shoot one. I don't even like holding one.

"When we get somewhere safe, I'll teach you," Shane throws an arm around my shoulders. "After all, I am a licensed instructor."

"Sounds like fun," I do my best fake smile and he buys it. Shooting a gun is something I would rather not do. Ever.

-

"Stupid radiator hose," Dale angrily puts the RV in park and turns off the key. Shane, Andrea, Glenn and I follow him out of the RV listening to him rant, "I told you all that that hose wouldn't last no time."

"Well if we can't find a hose in this place, we'll never find one," Shane shakes his head, looking around. We're in the middle of a freeway full of abandoned cars.

"We can scavenge here," Rick says. "Siphon some fuel and get these cars out of the way to fit the RV through and head on to Fort Benning."

"I don't know how I feel about this," Lori holds a hand over her eyes, blocking out the sun. "This is a graveyard."

"I don't like it," I agree with Lori. "Taking things from here just doesn't feel right."

"We could find medicine and bandages in the cars," Rick looks at me, knowing that I'll agree.

"I'll look for the medical supplies," I change my mind and take walk off to find a car that looks promising.

"If I see any medicine in these cars, how will I know which ones to take?" T-Dog asks from behind me. He's siphoning gas from the car beside of mine.

"Take them all," I tell him. "We can use everything we find at some point or another. That's the beauty of medicine, one pill could treat dozens of different diseases. We shouldn't let any go to waste."

"Alright then," he nods his head and moves into another car.

God, this is morbid. As I rummage through each bag and suitcase, I think about what happened to the person it belonged to. Obviously they're dead, but I just wonder how it happened. Maybe they died of some disease that wasn't a walker bite, but I'll never know. After not finding anything other than a box of band aids and some peroxide, I move to the next car.

"Oh shit," I hear T-Dog whisper from nearby. "Beatrix!"

"Yeah?" I whisper, running to where he was. He was sat down beside of a car with his arm sliced open and his radial artery pumping blood out. "Oh God, how'd you manage that?"

"Shhh you have to be quiet," he breathes out. "There's a bunch of them coming towards us. You need to hide."

"What? No, I need to get your arm fixed," I drop down beside of him and rip my top shirt off, leaving me in a tank top. He winces when I wrap it around his arm and push down hard.

"I've got it from here. They're getting close, now go get under that truck," he points with his good arm at a delivery truck not too far away.

"I'm not leaving you by yourself with an injury like this," I shake my head and notice a walker slowly walkin towards us. Standing up, I hesitantly reach for my knife that's strapped to my left leg, but Daryl beats me to it.

"Why the hell aren't you under a truck?" He hisses at me.

"T-Dog is hurt and I can't leave him by himself," I motion to T-Dog on the found beside of me. He's breathing heavily and keeping pressure on his right arm.

"You're an idiot, Beatrix," Daryl huffs and drags T-Dog so he's laying down on the blacktop. He quickly throws the walker he killed on top of him and telling him to say quiet. Then he grabbs my arm and pulls me never to the truck T-Dog pointed out, forcing me under it and sliding in beside of me.

"Daryl, he needs-" I begin to explain that T-Dog is going to need stitches soon, but he doesn't let me finish. He wraps his arm around my head and covers my mouth with his hand.

Pairs of feet begin shuffling past us, their moans and groans getting louder. Instinctively, I scoot closer to Daryl when their footsteps get closer to the side of truck. He tightens his grip on me while the heard passes. What feels like hours, but was probably only twenty minutes, later, the feet stop passing by and Daryl removes his hand from my mouth, but leaves his arm slung over me.

"Do you think they're gone?" I ask him with my cheek pressed against the blacktop.

"Give it a few minutes. Make sure they're all gone," Daryl whispers. A couple of minutes later he pokes his head out from under the truck, then pulls the rest of his body out, "Come on, you can help him now."

"Finally," I sigh and shuffle out from underneath the delivery truck. I quickly make my way back over to T-Dog and pull the dead walker off of him, "Are you okay? Can you feel your arm?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm dizzy though and-" T-Dog starts to talk, but he passes out before he can finish.

"Great," I mumble and remove my shirt from his arm to see if the bleeding has stopped. It hasn't, so I wrap it back on and tie it as tight as I can because I can't hold it right now. I move his body the best that I can so that his feet are propped up above his head, just in case he was in shock.

"Beatrix? Do you need any-" Daryl stops as soon as he looks down at T-Dog. "He dead?"

"No no," I shake my head and continue to apply pressure to his arm. "He passed out. Probably from blood loss, maybe from shock. I don't know, but I need to get him somewhere better than lying on the blacktop. It's probably not the best place to give stitches."

"I'll get Shane," Daryl mumbles and walks off. A minute later he returns with Shane. They both pick him up and walk with him towards the RV.

"Try to keep his legs elevated!" I call and follow after them. Soon enough they have him in the RV and they quickly disappear.

They didn't even keep his legs elevated, how rude. I grab all of the available pillows and stuff them under his legs before checking on the bleeding again. It's stopped, which is great. My medicine bags are still on the bed behind me, so I rummage through them until I find what I need for his arm. The peroxide bubbles when I pour it in, which is a good sign. It means I'm getting all of the infection out before it has the time to properly set in. I quickly stitch the cut shut and finish off by wrapping it in gauze because nobody wants to see that. When I'm all done, I leave him and head outside to see what everybody else is doing.

"Guys?" I question, looking around at everyone. They're all deathly quiet and Daryl, Rick, and Carol's daughter, Sophia are missing. "What happened?"

"Sophia ran off into the woods trying to get away from a walker," Lori quietly informed me, pulling me away from Carol. "Rick went straight after her, but now they can't find her. He said he told her to stay put, but when he went back she wasn't there. Carol isn't in the best state right now."

"That's terrible," I sigh and shake my head. "So Daryl and Rick are out looking for her?"

"Mhmm," Lori nods and starts going through one of the cars. "Daryl's a good tracker and Rick's had a lot of experience with stuff like this. We should be able to find her."

"I hope we do," I smile and begin digging through cars with her.

Hours later, once it's almost dark, Rick and Daryl return from their hunt for Sophia. I had gathered as much medical supplies as I could and stuffed it all into a crate and was very pleased with how much I actually got.

"Did you find my baby?" Carol asks them as they walk towards us. We're all gathered around, waiting for answers because Sophia was obviously not with them.

"No, but-"

"You can't leave my baby out there to spend the night by herself! She's just a child," Carol cries out.

"Lookin' in the dark would be even worse. We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. Probably get more of us lost too," Daryl looks at her sympathetically. I'm surprised that Daryl's showing any emotion other than anger or annoyance.

"Is that blood?" Carol points at Daryl's pants. Not sure why she was looking at his pants, but I wasn't gonna question it. None of us were, I don't think.

"We ran into a walker," Rick explains. "There's no proof that it was anywhere near your little girl."

"How can you know that?" Andrea asks.

"We cut the son of a bitch open," Daryl tells her. "We can look some more in the mornin'."

"Everybody get some rest. We'll head out first thing tomorrow," Rick orders and everybody scatters out. I walk over to one of the cleaner cars I went through and curl up in the backseat, drifting off to sleep.

-

"Everybody takes a weapon," Rick rolls out an entire arsenal on the hood of a random car.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need," Andrea complains. I shrug and take out a machete. Guns aren't necessary, so it doesn't really bother me, but Andrea is honestly getting a little annoying.

"We've already been over this, Andrea. Rick, Daryl and I will be the only ones carrying," Shane sighs.

"I want my gun," Andrea puts her hands on her hips.

"Rick and I are licensed to carry anyway, and and Daryl knows what he's doing. We don't need people popping off rounds every time a bush shakes," Shane explains. I tune them out as they argue and begin to pack a few things into a backpack that I found in a car.

"We'll go up the creek five miles and then back down. That's her only landmark she should be there," Daryl slings his crossbow on his back and we all head out.

We walk for hours in silence except for the occasional call for Sophia. I walk beside of Lori, careful to avoid looking at Carol. I've never been the best at comforting people in these types of situations. Give me a dying patient's family members, I'm fine. But give me someone who's lost a child and I'm completely clueless. I know the situations are similar, but really I'm only good at consoling my patients and their families. Pretty much all I'm good at is doing things for my patients and their families.

"Hold up," Rick holds a hand up and motions for us to stop. There's a tent in front of us and Daryl is already slowly unzipping it. "Carol, call out for her. If she's in there, your voice should be the first she hears."

"Sophia," Carol manages to say through her constant crying. "Sophia, baby, it's mommy."

Rick nods his head at Daryl and he quickly opens the tent. They both cough and take a stop back. The stench drifts back to us and I let out a gag. Someone has obviously died in there, probably killed themself if I was guessing. I watch as Daryl goes into the tent and comes back out a few seconds later, shaking his head.

"She's not in there. Some guy chose to opt-out like Jenner put it," Daryl wipes his face and we all fell silent again until we hear church bells ringing. Everyone takes off running until we finally break out of the tree line.

"Rick that's not it," Shane refers to the church in the distance. "No steeple, no bells."

Rick ignores him and takes off running to it anyway with all of us right behind him. The bells stop ringing by the time we make it to the front steps though. Rick, Shane and Daryl open the doors and kill the walkers inside.

"Yo, JC, you takin' any requests?" Daryl says to the statue of Jesus on the cross that stands in the front of the room. I let out a laugh from a few pews behind him and he raises an eyebrow at me. "Not religious?"

"Not at all," I say and head back outside of the church. Although I don't exactly believe, I still feel uncomfortable standing in a church. While everyone else is inside praying or whatever religious people do, I sit outside on the bricks around the welcome sign.

"This is some bullshit," Daryl grumbles from beside of me. "We don't need to waste any time here prayin' 'cause that's not gettin us anywhere. What we should be doing is walking along the damn creek and lookin' for that little girl."

"You're right," my head nods in agreement. "It's a waste of time. I prefer medical and scientific explanations than just blindly putting my faith into something I can't even prove."

"You're not as dumb as I thought you were," Daryl reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cigarette.

"I'm not dumb at all," I state. He can say it all he wants, but I know for a fact that I'm not dumb.

"Ya got no common sense," he puffs out a small cloud of smoke.

"Fair enough," I agree. He's right though, I'm only smart when it's something that I was taught. It falls silent between us until he puts his smoke out and walks back over to the others. They're all gathered together, so I follow him.

"Shane and I are gonna stay here for another hour or something. Just to be a bit more thorough," Rick says, wiping sweat off of his forehead.

"You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl asks Rick.

"Yeah, we'll be right behind you. Just head back to the highway up the other side of the creek," Rick tells us, then hands Lori his gun.

"I'm not gonna leave you unarmed," Lori shakes her head.

"Here, I gotta spare. You can take it," Daryl hands Lori a small handheld gun. If looks could kill, Lori would be dead ten times over by Andrea. She's still butthurt over Dale taking her gun I guess.

"I wanna stay with you, Dad," Carl walks over to Rick.

"It's up to your mom," Rick looked at Lori. "But I think you'd be okay."

"Be safe," Lori kissed his head, letting him go.

The small group of Carol, Andrea, Daryl, Glenn, Lori and I made outer way back to the highway. We called out for Sophia as we walked, but we had no luck in finding her. Nobody spoke and Carol just cried. I felt terrible for her, but there's nothing I can do to help her. Once we're about halfway back, we hear a single gunshot sing out. We paused for a moment, but continued walking in silence.

"Something's wrong," Lori suddenly stops. "Why only one gunshot?"

"Probably just had to put down a walker," Daryl sighs.

"Don't patronize me," Lori shakes her head. "Rick wouldn't risk using his gun to put down a single walker, or Shane, they'd use a knife."

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol timidly asks.

"Nothin' we can do about it anyway," Daryl tells us. "We best keep doin' what we've been doin'. Lookin' for Sophia and makin' our way back to the highway."

"I'm sure they'll meet us back at the RV," I put a hand on Lori's shoulder as Carol talks to Andrea.

"I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't end up like Amy," Carol says. She shakes her head after realizing what she just said, "Oh God. That's the worst thing I've ever said to someone."

"If it's worth anything, we're all hoping and praying with you," Andrea nods, trying not to look offended, though it's failing.

"Hoping and praying won't get you anywhere," I say to them. "The only thing we can do is search for her and we will find her."

"Damn right," Daryl says. "Trixie is the only one out of all of ya'll that's got half a brain. We're gonna track down and find your little girl."

"Trixie?" I question, walking at the same pace as Daryl.

"Didn't-" Daryl starts to explain himself, but Andrea screaming stopped him. We turned to run to her, but a woman on a horse had already taken care of the walker.

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" The woman frantically looks around. "Beatrix?"

"Who are you?" Lori asks the woman.

"Are you Lori?" Lori nods, "Carl's been shot. You need to come with me right now. Is there a Beatrix?"

"I'm Beatrix," I speak up.

"Rick said for you to get a Daryl to drive you on his bike out to the farm. He said you were a trauma suergon, right?"

"Yeah," I say, getting excited. Not because Carl got shot, but because I was going to get to perform surgery again. Rick was my last and I absolutely love doing it.

"Good. We need you to remove the bullett fragments from his abdomen," the woman pulls Lori up onto the horse with her. "Get back onto Fairborn Road, two miles down you'll see our mailbox. The name is Greene."

"We don't even know this woman! How are you supposed to trust her?" Daryl yells as the woman rides off with Lori on the back of the horse.

"Daryl, she knows Rick and she knows our names. Carl has been shot and I need to perform surgery on him," I grab his arm and start to pull him along.

"You're right," he mumbles and turns to the rest of the small group. "Ya'll make your way back to the RV. Stay there tonight and rig a big sign in case Sophia makes her way back there, then head to the farm in the morning."

"We can all meet up there," I add in before letting go of Daryl's arm and taking off in a run towards the highway. Daryl is right behind me and it only takes us minutes to get back.

"What's wrong?" Dale asks from on top of the RV.

"Carl's been shot," I explain as Daryl gets onto his bike. "They need me. Daryl, don't we need a surgical kit?"

"Rick said for me to bring you on the bike," Daryl starts the engine on the motorcycle. "He would have said if they needed any medical supplies. You're fine, now get on."

"Alight," I mumble and swing my leg over the bike, sitting down.

"You best hold on tight," Daryl tells me as he starts maneuvering through the abandoned cars. "Unless you wanna fall off."

I wrap my arms around his waist and squeeze tight, afraid of falling off. The thought of operating on someone had clouded my mind. I hadn't even thought about how this was my first time on a motorcycle or how afraid of them I used to be. I force the scared thoughts away and bury my face into Daryl's back, just hoping the ride would be over soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beatrix gets to do surgery again! Yay! Don't forget to leave a review :)


	8. Chapter 8

Beatrix

"Oh God, Beatrix!" Rick yells from the porch of the large, white farmhouse we'd found.

"Rick, where's Carl? How is he?" I frantically ask, running onto the porch and into the house.

"In here," Rick leads me to a room where Carl is laying unconscious on a bed and Lori is crying beside of it. There's a old man taking his blood pressure and a woman messing with an IV beside of him.

"Are you a doctor too?" I ask the man.

"No, I'm a vet," he says and I sigh. "I'm Hershel. I take it you can do surgery?"

"Beatrix. It's my chosen profession," I smile, but it instantly fades as I look a Carl. "How many fragments?"

"Six, but I managed to get one out," he takes his stethescope out of his ears and hands it to me. "He woke up during it, and he has internal bleeding. You'll need to cut him open to get everything fixed I'm afraid. And he'll need to be put under or you could sever an artery."

"Do you have the supplies to do surgery and put him under?" I ask before dropping to my knees beside Carl and listening to his heart and lungs.

"I have the medicine to put him under and a suergical kit, but no way to keep him breathing," he explains, then looks to a rather large man in the corner of the room that I hadn't noticed. "I was thinking you could get the stuff from one of the FEMA trailers at the high school. They're stocked with medical supplies."

"Trailers stocked with medical supplies?" I smile up at him, but then shake my head. Task at hand, Beatrix, concentrate on the task at hand. "Nevermind that. I have a tracheal intubation kit in the RV on the highway. And an oxygen mask, which will be annoying to do, but it would work."

"I'm sure we could make do with that," Hershel says. "How far away is it?"

"I could be there and back in five minutes," I get up, but Daryl keeps me from leaving the room.

"You need to stay here," he puts his hands on my shoulders. "Carl needs you."

"I'll go," Rick starts toward the door, but Lori stops him.

"No, Rick, I can't do this alone. You need to be here," Lori grabs his arm and he sits back down beside of her.

"I'll go. Which bags to you want me to bring?" Daryl asks me, looking straight into my eyes. I was slightly intimidated, but I didn't let it faze me. This is my area of expertise and I need to be in control.

"All of them. I don't know what's in each seperate bag. We can sort it out when you get back," I say. He nods and turns to leave.

"Take Shane with you if you want," Rick chimes in.

"All of that won't fit on my bike," Daryl shakes his head, probably thinking about how much medical supplies I actually have.

"Take my truck," the large man in the corner volunteers. "It's the blue one, I'll show you."

"I'm goin' too, man," Shane says from the doorway. I hadn't noticed him here before.

"Hurry up!" I yell at them. "I need to operate on Carl soon or he's going to die."

Not entirely true because Carl could survive a few more hours like this, but they need to get going. They all run out of the room after I yell and I look back at Lori and Rick. I probably shouldn't have said that in front of them.

"Is he really-" Lori cries, not able to finish her sentence.

"No, no. He'll be fine as long as they get the bags to me soon. I'll operate as soon as I can and he'll be just fine," I smile at her.

"Thank you, Beatrix," Rick nods at me. I suddy remember something I need from the RV though and run outside the house, hoping they hadn't left yet.

"Daryl! Shane!" I call out, running out of the door. Shane slammed on the brakes of the truck once he heard me running to them. I got up to the passenger window where Daryl was and reached in, grabbing his face, "Bring my IV pole please."

"You and that damn pole," he jerks his face away from me and leans back. "I'll get it."

"Thank you," I step back and let them drive away, then make my way back into Carl's room.

"Where'd you go?" Lori asks me.

"Told Daryl to bring my IV pole with him," I let out a small laugh and direct my attention back to Carl. His eyes were fluttering open and I took my opportunity to get down beside of him and take his carotid pulse on his neck.

"Where am I?" Carl asks, reaching his hand up to mine and holding onto my thumb.

"Shhh," I quieten him until I'm finished with his pulse. It's normal, so I let him continue, "You were shot. The bullet broke up into six pieces and I need to get them out. Guess how many bullet fragments your dad had when he got shot?"

"How many?" Carl looks up at me.

"Six. Just like you," I smile and he returns it before looking at Lori.

"Mom, I was petting a deer. It was so pretty," Carl sighs before his eyes roll back into his head and his grip on my thumb goes limp. He's getting ready to seize.

"What happend to him?" Rick panics as Carl's body starts jerking back and forth in a frenzy.

"He's seizing," I inform Rick and force Carl onto his left side, facing me. Rick and Lori attempt to hold him down, but I stop them. "If you hold him down you'll hurt him. You just have to let him seize it out."

"Oh god," Lori mutters and sits down while Rick and I still hold Carl on his left side. Not restricting him, just making sure that if he pukes he won't asperate and die. After a couple of minutes, Carl's body goes limp again and I let him roll back onto his back.

"Check his bandage. Is there extra blood on it?" I watch as Rick pulls the covers down to reveal Carl's abdomen. The bandages covering his wound are completely covered in blood. Good job, Carl, you managed to seize your wound open.

"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Lori asks worriedly. As if on cue, we hear a truck engine outside and I smile. Shane and Daryl both run in, carrying my suitcases and duffle bags of medical supplies.

"I told you my medical supplies could save Carl's life one day," I mutter at Rick and Lori. They seem like they didn't like that very nuch, but it's true. I did tell them. "Where's my IV pole?"

"In the back of the truck," Daryl drops the bags he's holding onto the floor. "I'll go get it."

"Thank you!" I call after him. "Alright we need to get to work. Hershel, how many people do you have that can help me?"

"You've got Maggie, Patricia, Beth, and I," he tells me. Four people, that's a good start to a surgery team.

"Can we push this bed out from the wall and get a chair behind it? Someone's gonna need to pump the bag at all times," I start going though the bags, pulling out my intubation kit and the bag to go on it.

"Of course," Hershel says as Daryl enters the room with my IV pole, sitting it down and turning to leave.

"Daryl, wait!" I say and he stops in his tracks. "Can you push the bed out from the wall? I'm sure Rick's given blood and isn't very able," I noticed the bandage on Rick's forearm earlier. "Rick, you or Lori are gonna have to keep him breathing. About seventeen times per minute you'll have to squeeze the pouch. Can you do it?"

"Yeah, we can do it," Rick nods his head as Daryl gets the bed pushed out. I immediately step behind the bed and lean over with my intubation kit, getting the tubing down his throat and attaching the bag while Hershel gave Carl the medicine to be put to sleep with.

"Daryl, Shane, and man I don't know, I don't mean to be rude, but please leave. It's really crowded in here and I need to be able to work," I order and they all leave. It's still crowded, but not as bad as before. "Can someone get me gloves and a bathroom?"

The woman, I'm pretty sure her name is Patricia, leads me to a bathroom to scrub up and slip on gloves. Everyone else does the same before I'm finally ready to open Carl up.

-

"Did you do your medical thing?" Daryl asks me as I sit down on the small couch next to him.

"Yes, I done my medical thing," I let out a small laugh and wipe a small bead of sweat off of my forehead. "Carl's gonna be just fine. No complications."

"Good," he crosses his legs, but like in a manly way. I never understood why men only propped their foot on their knee, but whatever floats their boat.

"I don't know where we're supposed to sleep," I sigh and pull my knees up to my chest. It's already dark outside and the only lights on are the ones in Carl's room and the porch lights that shine through the window. Hershel and his family headed to bed not too long ago and left Rick and Lori in Carl's room. I'm pretty sure Shane took Otis' truck back to the highway to update the others and bring them here tomorrow while I was working on Carl. Daryl had the opportunity to go, but he didn't. He's probably just worried about Carl.

"Right here seems like as good of a place as any," Daryl leans back, making himself comfortable. "Doesn't look like a very comfortable position to sleep in."

"It's not," I sigh and drop my head onto my knees.

"Here," he grabs my ankles and pulls them out across his legs, forcing me into a laying position.

"You don't look comfy either," I look up at him. He's got his hands behind his head and his eyes are closed.

"I've slept in worse conditions," he has a hint of a grin on his face. It's kind of cute, really.

-

Daryl is gone when I wake up the next morning, which I totally expected. As long as I've known him, which isn't very long, he's always been awake before me. Then again, almost everybody wakes up before me. I'm always the last to wake up.

"Finally awake?" Hershel asks from the chair across from the couch I'm sitting on. "I'm sorry I didn't get you and your husband a bed. I was too exhausted to do much of anything. The couch probably wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep."

"Oh, he's not my husband," I let out a small laugh at his mistake. It probably looked weird, but we were just sleeping and making do with the situation we were in. "But it's fine. It's better than where I have been sleeping."

"We have breakfast if you want some," Hershell points to the dining where I see everybody eating at the table.

"Thank you," I smile at him, getting up and going to the dining room. I take a seat between Hershel's daughter, Beth, and Rick.

"Good morning, Beatrix," Rick smiles at me. "I can't thank you enough for what you've done for Carl. And for what you've done for me, taking care of me while I was in a coma. I owe you a lot."

"It's really not a problem," I shrug and pick up a piece of toast, covering it in grape jelly. "I love helping people and you all have been so nice to me already, letting me join your group and all."

"Carl and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you," Rick puts a hand on my shoulder. "I could never repay that debt to you."

I wasn't really sure what to say after that, so I just smiled and nodded my head. Rick finished his food and went to take a plate to Lori, who had stayed in the room with Carl. Once I've finished my toast and jelly, I head back to Carl's room as well.

"Has he woken up yet?" I ask Lori, who's sat in the same chair behind the bed as she was last night when she was keeping him breathing. I notice he's regaining his color as I take his blood pressure.

"No, is that bad?" Lori clutches Rick's arm as if she'll die if she lets go.

"No, not at all," I push my hair behind my ears. "He should wake up soon though. Just come and find me if we wakes up while I'm not here, okay?"

"We will," Lori gives me a faint smile. "Thank you so much."

"It's no problem," I stand back up from my crouched position and head outside.

"Beatrix, isn't it?" Hershel's other daughter, Maggie, walks up to me.

"Yeah, hello. You're Maggie, right?" I take a seat on one of the rocking chairs on the porch and pull my knees up to my chest.

"That's me," she takes a seat in the rocking chair next to me. She extends her hand out to me and I shake it, not wanting to seem rude. "We haven't really had a proper introduction yet."

"Yeah, but you're a really good suergical assistant," I let out a small laugh and she does too.

"Thank you. You're an excellent suergon," Maggie smiles at me. "How many are in the rest of your group?"

"Other than Shane and Daryl, there's five of them," I tell her. "Well, six really. A woman, Carol, lost her daughter a couple of days ago and we've been lookin for her ever since. I'm pretty sure that's how Carl got shot."

"That's terrible," she shakes her head. "And I'm sure Otis didn't mean to shoot him. It was a complete accident."

"It doesn't matter," I shake my head. "What matters is that he's gonna be okay."

She was going to answer when we heard cars gettin close to the house. Once they came into view I identified them as the RV and Carol's Cherokee, along with a blue truck that I assume is Otis'. I smile at the sight and go inside to tell Rick. When I went to open the door to Carl's room, I almost slammed right into Lori.

"I was just coming to get you, Carl's awake," she smiles and moves out of the way so I can get to Carl.

"You can go on outside, the rest of the group is here. I'll be here with him," I tell Rick and get on my knees beside of the bed so I can talk to Carl. "Hey, Carl. How are you feeling?"

"My stomach hurts," he puts a hand over his bandages.

"I know, but you can't touch that, okay? You wouldn't want to break your stitches," I ruffle his hair a little. "You're just like your dad. And you should get some rest."

"Okay," he sighs and closes his eyes again, going back to sleep. I stand back up and head back outside to see what's going on.

"He's going to be okay, thanks to Beatrix and Hershel," Rick says. I assume he's talking about Carl.

"T-Dog!" I spot him and make my way over. "How's your arm? Let me see it."

"Hurts like hell," he winces as I lift up the gauze to look at it. His veins are discolored and puss is oozing out of it.

"It's infected. How did you even manage that? I cleaned it so well!" I sigh and pull him into the house to I can fix his arm up.

After T-Dog's arm is all finished, I head outside to see what everyone's doing. The women and Glenn are setting up tents and the men and Maggie are gathered around a car.

"What's going on?" I ask once I make it over to Rick.

"Just discussing the plan for finding Sophia," Rick nods to a map on the hood of the car.

"I'll help look for her if you need me to," I volunteer.

"Daryl is the only one going today. I'm not able, Shane is going to scout out a place to do gun training, and you need to stay here with Carl," Rick tells me.

"Fair enough," I shrug as Daryl and Shane walk off.

"Got any more medical supplies? We're runnin low," Maggie looks between Rick and I.

"Didn't you see the bags they brought in last night?" Rick raises his eyebrow.

"Is all of that medical supplies?" She asks, astonished.

"Beatrix is passionate about medical supplies," Rick laughs.

"It's true! I basically live for the stuff," I laugh along with everyone. "Seriously though, what about that high school Hershel mentioned last night? I hear that there's trailers full of medical supplies."

"Oh no, you wouldn't wanna go there. The place is overrun," Maggie sighs. "It's a medical supply heaven, but it's not worth it."

"Medical supplies is always worth it," I mumble. That place is supposedly a medical supply heaven and they expect me to not try and go to it? That's cute. I'm sure I could gather up a few people and go check it out at lease.

"There is a pharmacy down town that I've been going to to get supplies. I could go back and see if they have anything potientally useful if you want," Maggie offered.

"That would be great," I smile. More medical supplies makes for a happy Beatrix.

"See our man in the baseball cap? He's our go-to-town man. You should take him with you," Rick points out Glenn to Maggie.

"Will do," she smiles and walks off to Glenn. After I see that she's done talking to him, I walk over to him.

"Hey, Beatrix!" Glenn waves at me. "What should I look for at the pharmacy?"

"I will provide you with bags to carry it in if need be, but you bring everything. Anything medical you must bring it to me. I could need it," I order. It kind of sounded like I was threatening him, which was funny.

"Jeez, I'll get it. Calm down," Glenn shakes his head and walks off. I smile to myself and walk over to Carol to see if she needs any help.

"Not right now, sweetie. We're just fixing sleeping arrangements," Carol smiles at me. All of the tents are put up and T-Dog and Shane are working on the fire pit. Winter is coming up in a few weeks, so we've gotta stay warm somehow.

"Oh. How's that gonna work out?" I ask her. She looks around and counts the tents again before answering.

"Everyone will have to buddy up. We've already talked about it some," Carol looks to the RV. "Dale and T-Dog are going to take the RV, Rick and Lori will obviously share the bigger one with Carl once he's well enough to be out here. I'm going to share with Andrea, and I'm pretty sure Glenn and Shane said they were."

"Then that leaves," I pause, thinking. "Me and Daryl, how great. It shouldn't be that bad though. We shared a room at the CDC, and he seemed fine then."

"That's good," Carol puts a hand on my shoulder. She still looks so sad, I really hope we find Sophia soon. "He had us pitch his tent all the way over there, away from the rest of us."

"I'm going to go talk to him about it," she nods as I get up and walk off to find Daryl before he leaves to go look for Sophia.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thanks for taking the time to read my story. I would really appreciate it if you also took the time to leave me a short review telling me how you liked it. I'll update at least once a week, so be sure to check back soon for chapter two!


End file.
